The Market On Tuesday

  Good morning. It is 17 degrees and cloudy here in Upstate NY. Yet another day in the unrelenting Winter of '14 as the frigid cold remains. The weather logos seem to keep adjusting by promising warmer temperatures in the next week as if to try to maintain our withered spirits. We will believe it when we see it. I am beginning to think that this year we might skip over Spring and go directly into Summer. It could happen in our new world of climate change.

  At 8:30 a.m. ET futures are modestly higher and the price of oil per barrel is slightly higher. The market is poised to open slightly higher.

  The market is allegedly in a March doldrum period. It seems to equate to the stagnant and unrelenting Winter somehow. Today investors will parse data on housing and consumer confidence. We are confident, are we not.

CNN: Stocks: A case of March mediocrity

The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index will come out at 9 a.m. ET. The U.S. government will also report February new home sales at 10 a.m.

...the Conference Board will publish its consumer confidence index at 10 a.m.