The Market On Tuesday

  Good morning. It is 0 degrees and sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley. We are in the deep belly of Winter, that is for sure. Allegedly it gets above freezing this weekend, till then button up. We are up to our eyeballs in snow, the roads even after all the plowing have snow on them especially around here in the neighborhoods. I am so glad I don't live in the city any more where alternate side of the street parking mandates happen after these major storms. No, now we have a driveway and yesterday I shoveled it about four times. I am wondering if the strong sun will warm the roads enough to melt the snow.

  At 8:30 a.m. ET futures are up and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open higher.

  It is the price of oil that remains the intriguing issue. Check out this article from Reuters - Oil prices up more as BP joins sector spending cuts. People are happy to float theories about the world economy and few of them ever actually occur but some feel that oil prices have hit their bottom number and that they will once again slowly rise up to the Summer and then flatten out. We shall see indeed. Meanwhile oil companies have been cutting staff and cutting out spending. Oil production in certain areas of the world is scaling back big time. According to CNN, The United States is now the number one oil producer in the world now producing more oil than the Saudis.

CNN: Stocks: 6 things to know before the open

Investors were encouraged by reports that the Greek government is adopting a more measured approach to its debt standoff with Europe.

The Australian central bank is cutting its key interest rate by 25 basis points to a record low of 2.25%.