The Market On Tuesday

  Good morning. It is 23 degrees with a little bit of sunshine here in the Upper Hudson Valley. The forecast is predicting temperatures in the 20s over the next few days. Not that it matters much as they change the forecast so often. My forecast is better and more reliable - it's Winter, it's cold. The light is indeed improving, the Sun is a little bit stronger in the sky and it's noticeable. Yeah for that. I had a good productive day on Monday and managed to listen to a long historical piece on Dr Martin Luther King, what a man. He is a model for anybody, amazing. And did I mention that the Knicks won a game, that would be after a record 16 losses in a row.

  At 9 a.m. ET futures are modestly higher and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market will open higher and energy stocks will get nailed, again.

  The IMF forecast for the world economy is in the headlines this morning. That forecast is - it sucks and will suck next year too. What's the big deal, the world is always falling apart. It falls apart as fast as something that causes improvement occurs, maybe faster. We learn from our suffering, that's the human condition.

CNN: Stocks: 6 things to know before the open

Still, there was plenty of gloom shrouding the world economy as the International Monetary Fund cut its forecasts for global growth for this year and next.