The Market On Thursday

  Good morning. It is 43 degrees and overcast here in Upstate NY. It will be warmer and raining over the next couple of days. There is an interesting basketball game going on tonight. The NY Knicks will play the Brooklyn Nets in Brooklyn. Both team were expected to be very competitive this season and both have failed miserably. This could very well end up being the first game in NBA history where both teams lose.

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

  Big day of economic data as the weekly layoffs reports, latest 3rd quarter GDP estimate, and a report on factory orders comes through. Regardless the big deal at the center of it all is the eventual curtailment of quantitative easing and getting a real sense of when that will occur.

CNN: Stocks tread water before data deluge

...four straight days of losses...

Trading has been choppy as investors try to gauge when the Federal Reserve will begin pulling back on its stimulus.