The Market On Monday

  Good morning. It is 68 degrees and sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley. We are in for another day in the 80s. I hope you had a good weekend, I did. I enjoyed seeing a production of 'The Night Of The Iguana'. It was civic theater, nicely done by all actors. How about that biker brawl in Texas. You know, I have very little sympathy for these guys, still 9 people dead. WTF! What a pointless way to go - tragic and utterly unnecessary. Guys and their macho nonsense, will it ever stop - probably not.

  At 8:50 a.m. ET futures are modestly lower and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open lower.

  The morning is getting off to a slow start allegedly surrounding more fighting in the M.E. I don't get it, isn't there always fighting in the M.E. Retailers will be coming out with quarterly reports this week and recall that consumer spending, oh consumer, is right at the heart of the economy. Make money and spend it - repeat every day over your entire lifetime. Oil has floated up to over $60 a barrel again with renewed expressions that oil may go up to $80 a barrel by the end of the year. There are guesses and then there are predictions based on understanding.

CNN: Stocks: 4 things to know before the open

It's a big week for retail earnings...

...the National Association of Home Builders release its monthly housing market index at 10 a.m. ET.