The Market On Friday

  Good morning. It is a cool 22 degrees and mostly sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley. The forecast has the temperature going up into the 40s today. Ever so slowly more and more little patches of ground are being revealed as the snow retreats. Looking out the backyard window where I am typing I would say roughly 95% of the yard is covered in snow. That 5% ground took a lot of hard work to get to! Regardless, it's the weekend and hopefully you can get some rest and I can kill off the remaining coughs and spurts of my lingering flu/cold.

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

  Investors are figuring out how to factor in an anticipated Fed base interest rate hike. Next week there will be a Fed announcement which probably will but may not address this issue. In my opinion it is still the Fed that holds the biggest stick in the endless monetary struggle.

CNN: Stocks: 4 things to know before the open

Investors are expecting the Fed to raise interest rates in the next few months as the job market improves and salaries rise. The expectations for tighter monetary policy have helped the dollar rally to new highs and caused some jitters in U.S. markets.