The Market On Thursday

  Good morning. It is 15 degrees and very lightly snowing here in the Upper Hudson Valley. I'm still looking ahead to Sunday where the temperature is predicted to go above freezing for the first time in possibly years, or at least weeks. It certainly seems like years as this is the part of Winter that is a real trial unless of course one really likes the cold and the snow. I would have to admit that in a particular way I do like the Winter. It's a very contemplative period of the year - color is gone, it's all white out there and so there's less to get caught up in visually, we become a little housebound and quieter or at least some of us do.

  At 8:30 a.m. ET futures are slightly lower and the price of oil is down. The market is poised to open lower and once again energy equities will get pounded.

  Oil is once again trading below $50 after trading between $50 and $55 for almost two weeks. There is a big change going on with a large oversupply of oil on the market. One might expect to see the numbers tumble even more around 11 a.m. with the release of the U.S. Energy Information Administration report on oil supplies.

CNN: Stocks: 5 things to know before the open

This comes ahead of the closely-watched U.S. Energy Information Administration report due out 11 a.m. ET, which is also expected to show oil inventories have risen.

Investors generally focused on a line indicating the U.S. Fed would keep interest rates at record-low levels for "a longer time".