The Market On Wednesday

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  At 8:40 a.m. ET futures are moderately lower and the price of oil per barrel is slightly higher. The market is poised to open with a whimper.

  Two currents are tugging on pre-market numbers. The first is the ongoing concern over the abatement of quantitative easing and how that concern will be affected by soon to be new Fed Chair, Janet Yellen. The second concern is some new fangled economic policy coming out of China. I don't know what that is all about yet, but recall that China is the darling of the finance world with it's seemingly endless ability to crank out junk as the world's great producer of stuff. You know what I'm talking about. One suspects that investors don't want that massive boat rocked but something is up there and that causes market stress.

CNN: Stocks: Sluggish start to the day

Investors were digesting a Chinese Communist Party communique on economic reform that was heavy on jargon but light on specifics.