The Market On Thursday

  Good morning. It is 45 degrees and mostly sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley. It looks like we are in for a fine Spring day and man have we earned it. The debate continues in the liberal circles about why one might vote for Hillary as opposed to perhaps not voting at all or voting Green Party etc. In NY it will not matter, as Hillary will win in this almost predictably blue state. An awful lot of people would have to deliberately stay away from the booths to allow Bush to capture NY. So location is one issue. I will vote for Hillary primarily because of her stance on the social issues - abortion, gay marriage, SSI, medicare, immigration, etc. However I am not foolish enough to believe that her presidency will drastically change the landscape for the middle class and the poor. And let's admit it, the middle class is slipping more and more towards poor. Also Hillary is a hawk, she would have no problem with another war/conflict/drone strike asymmetrical attack in country X,Y, or Z. Also I fully expect Hillary to bow before Wall Street, talk the talk on global warming yet continue in the corporate quest to make the USA the world's number one oil producer. Let's just get realistic, there's no other choice outside of our own personal understanding about how to literally exist in the world and how we can go about living in that personal manner.

  At 8:45 a.m. ET futures are modestly lower and the price of oil per barrel is down from a peak of around $56 for light crude, a 2015 record high, set on Wednesday. The market is poised to open lower.

  Follow the oil. Oil is at the center of the entire Wall Street picture with just a few other strong competitors - pharmaceuticals perhaps, maybe some high tech. The government is saying that first time unemployment numbers were at 294,000 for the last week. Employment is improving but the quality of jobs and salaries excepting those at Goldman Sachs remain low. Corporate results continue to come in on the positive side.

CNN: Stocks: 5 things to know before the open

Crude is slipping back in electronic trading to just below $56 a barrel after hitting a 2015 high on Wednesday.

OPEC releases its monthly report March Thursday, on the heels of an update from the International Energy Agency which showed the cartel is fighting hard to keep its share of the world oil market despite last year's price slump.