The Market On Thursday

  Good morning. It is 18 degrees and cloudy with some sun here in Upstate NY. I was hoping for that post snow storm brilliant clear sunny day, maybe later on this afternoon we'll get some of that. Recapping, there are three stories that at present have my attention. That would be Christie's bridge-gate which has implications right to the White House, California's drought which is huge in consequence and probably related to the reshaping of weather patterns, and finally the instability in the stock market as a consequence of the winding down of quantitative easing. Of these three it is the drought that is the most demanding issue. Without a sustainable world environment the machinations of money and power are nothing but a moot point.

  At 8:10 a.m. ET DOW futures are moderately higher and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open higher.

  Without the benefit of an accurate crystal ball which sees into the future, one might presume that the recent downward trend is a market correction. Perhaps we get 4 days of losses and one of gains, who knows, but the recent trend has been down with the DOW losing over 1,000 points in the past weeks. Eventually quantitative easing will end, the markets will have to adjust to the loss of ultra abundant and cheap liquidity, and the merits of the economy have to stand up on its own two feet so to speak. That process is just beginning to unfold.

CNN: Stocks: Looking steady, except for Twitter

Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital, said that markets could have a tough time holding onto gains, since they're in a "market correction" mode with a "negative bias."