The Market On Thursday

  Good morning. It is 27 degrees and partly cloudy here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a partly cloudy day with temperatures around 34 degrees this afternoon. It's been very gray lately, we get that in this area, periods of grayness. Generally speaking, I like gray, it's ambiguous, it's neither black or white but both.

  At 8:20 a.m. ET DOW futures are -40 and the price of oil per barrel is up. Oil is above $54 a barrel this morning, which is about the highest we've seen it in a few years actually. The market is poised to open moderately lower.

  Today is about corporate fourth quarter earnings reports. This is where the rubber meets the road and we learn more about the health of the corporate economy which most of us believe to be the entire economy although it kind of is not. Notice that Trump is making strong overtures towards Iran. Hopefully rational minds will prevail and that situation is diffused, sooner rather than later.

CNN: Earnings deluge; Trump diplomacy; Takeover time? by Alanna Petroff

"The Trump twitter feed overnight included some strong language about Iran, and that most diplomatic of phrases 'a dumb deal' in reference to relations with Australia," said Paul Donovan, global chief economist at UBS Wealth Management.