The Market On Wednesday

  Good morning. It is cloudy and 34 degrees here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a cloudy day with temperatures around 37 degrees this afternoon. Looking ahead the longer range forecast is predicting temperatures around 50 degrees on Sunday. If that happens it's going to be pretty wet around here with all the melting snow we now have. Well, well, well, what happens next? It looks like America is starting to catch on to the fact, and the emphasis is on the word fact, that our new president and all of his cronies are in complete cahoots with the Russians of all people. This turd pile is beginning to collapse piece by stinking piece. Each moment is bringing revelations of corruption and lying that make Watergate look like a stroll in the park. Now, will the GOP Senate do its actual duty and uphold the laws of the land or will they bow their hypocritical little slimy selves and look the other way and lie to America.

  At 9:20 a.m. ET the DOW is +3 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open in the flat area.

  More testimony from Janet Yellen today, and that is usually a very salient piece or most salient piece of the puzzle. It's all about that base interest rate and consequently how cheap the flow of money is. I certainly enjoy the credit bargains where you can buy something and have 36 months to pay it off with 0% interest. That's not going to stay. And when the political volatility of this administration's hubris slides around more and more, then what? Well, the hope is always the same, i.e. that wiser minds prevail, and that the decent institutions in this country hold up.

CNN: Retailers go to Washington; Stocks set records; SoftBank spends by Alanna Petroff

On Tuesday, Yellen signaled in her testimony that the next interest rate hike could come as early as March.