The Market On Wednesday

  Good morning. It is 63 degrees and hazy sunny here in Upstate NY. The thunder, lightning, and rain were on prime display throughout the night. One particular boom of thunder brought me right out of a deep sleep, the type of deep sleep where you awake and are clueless about your location - where am I? In some respects I may still be suffering from that...Unfortunately our new dog is terrified of the thunder. She hunkers down on the tile in the bathroom with her head almost under the sink vanity and she simply shakes, trembles. Nothing can rouse her out of it and right now we are considering putting her on a medication to help ease her suffering. The news is dominated by the death and destruction caused by the tornadoes out west. It's hard to imagine one coming out of a tornado shelter and seeing one's entire world, one's town or neighborhood reduced to nothing but a heap of debris in a matter of seconds. All this then comes the utter urgency of locating family, friends, and neighbors to see if they have survived. The sense of dislocation and feeling of helplessness are over the top and so these people are dealing with some very deep trauma. That's a major problem. We are all attentive to it and somehow we try to mentally surround these stricken areas with a sense of compassion and deep concern.

  At 7:45 a.m. futures are slightly higher and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open mixed.

  Well right about now with the DOW approaching the 15,500 level we are all looking at each other and wondering. Some of us are wondering when this journey ends and some are wondering how we can extend the ride. We tend to forget that the market is cyclical and that is the reality. Fed chair Bernanke will be speaking about economic policy before Congress today. This is very big. Bernanke is expected to reveal the Fed's thinking on its program of quantitative easing AKA flooding the markets with money. Will this program continue, abate, slowly wind down, etc - this is the question. Needless to say the answer will affect the direction of the market. Early indications are that the program will continue. We shall see.

CNN: Stocks: Looking to Bernanke

Bernanke will discuss his outlook for the economy Wednesday before Congress in a hearing that begins at 10 a.m. ET.

...data on existing home sales at 10 a.m ET.