The Market On Wednesday

  Good morning. It is 22 degrees and sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley. A cold day in the 20s is predicted. We got about an inch of snow last night, so everything is coated in white; winter is here. We are into our fourth week of increasing daylight and in my opinion that increase becomes more noticeable in February. I'm glad to read that the ten Navy sailors picked up by Iran have now been released. I watched a little of Obama's SOTU address and I liked it. He spoke of lofty ideals and in some sense it was more like a sermon. What a contrast to the bellicose, mean spirited, and fundamentally hateful rhetoric coming from our fear driven right. That's America, driven between hope, hate, fear and anger; not to mention racism and fundamental stupidity.

  At 9:00 a.m. ET futures are significantly higher and the price of oil per barrel is up after drifting below $30 per barrel on Tuesday. The market is poised to open higher.

  There are many articles out now predicting oil can go down to as low as $10 a barrel. Hell, why not simply give it away for free. Meanwhile BP is laying off 4,000 people, as the price of oil bottoms out, away go the jobs in the oil companies as well. This is partly what the Saudis have in mind with their overproduction policy no doubt inspired by a few royally rich 20 something year old Harvard MBAs, bless their greedy little hearts.

CNN: Stocks: 4 things to know before the open

Crude futures are bubbling up around 1% to above $31 a barrel after oil briefly sank below $30 for the first time since December 2003. The selling on Tuesday left crude down 19% this year alone, and 72% from its June 2014 peak of almost $108. Traders will closely watch a weekly update on U.S. crude inventories that is due at 10:30 am ET.