The Market On Thursday

Good morning. It is 62 degrees and rainy here in Upstate NY. There is a sun popping out from behind the clouds logo for Friday, so the sun might make an appearance after nearly a solid week of rain. The new sump pump is being put to good use. A few neighbors have had the fire department over to pump the water out of their basements. There's nothing like a wet basement to send someone into a period of self reflection...

At 8:10 a.m. futures are nearly flat, the dollar is mostly up, and oil is slightly down.

Eyes will be focused on Bernanke's comments from a planned speech this afternoon, and then the big deal is Obama's 7 p.m. talk on a job creation plan.

We are moving into a profoundly radical political environment. Social security and medicare are under attack and may soon be history. Unions are under attack especially those which include public school teachers and such. Public schools are under attack with an interest in privatizing them. Voting rights for the poor are under attack and the minimum wage is under attack not from the good side which recognizes that it is too low. This is the radical drift of the right wing and floodgates are opening in spite of the fact that the majority of Americans are opposed to these changes.

CNN: Stocks proceed with caution

...a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at 1:30 p.m. ET.


...President Obama will wrap up the busy day with a speech on job creation at 7 p.m. ET.