The Market On Thursday

  Good morning. It is 57 degrees and sunny here in Upstate NY. We are back to delicious sleeping weather and sleep we did. Last night I actually used covers as I slept. In fact some people were saying this was our first glimpse of Fall. This human is not prepared to mentally go in that Fall direction, thank you. I will try to savor the Summer as best as I can. The garden on the other hand is producing wonderful quantities of greens and squash, so my diet is pretty much set. We also have cucumbers which in my opinion could very well be the best vegetable ever. Fall indeed...

  At 8:24 a.m. ET futures are modestly down and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open lower.

  So far corporate second quarter results have for the most part beaten expectations. However a few stinker results from yesterday are throwing a retreat sign up and into the mechanism for this morning. Let's see if it holds up through the day. Shortly we will also see the first time layoff numbers and through the recession this has always been a touchy and salient event. Enjoy the pre-Fall.

CNN: Stocks: Retreat on tap

... (so far) more than 65% (of S&P corporations) had topped analysts' expectations, according to S&P Capital IQ.

Asian markets ended with losses...