Morning Market Report

Markets were up across the board yesterday. The Dow was up .52%, the S&P 500 was up .66%, and the NASDAQ was up .39%. All three represent highs for 2009. Futures are pointing up this morning though futures are up marginally. All are up less than half a percent. The big news of the day is almost certainly going to come this morning when the minutes of the FOMC meeting are announced. It's universally expected that rates will stay the same however the markets are likely to hang on every word that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says along with the announcement.

Meanwhile, mortgage applications also hit a five month high last week. Thirty year mortgages reached below 5% last week and that drove applications up to the highest levels since May. The ten year U.S. Treasury is now at 3.48%. That's the same as where it was yesterday morning. It's giving back about the three basis points it gained during the day. The yield spread between the two and ten year is now at 2.45%. Oil is now trading at $71.35 a barrel. That's down 41 cents a barrel from close yesterday. Oil has however gained nearly $2 a barrel since dropping below $70 a barrel last week.

Markets in the Far East were mixed however they were up across the board in Europe. The Hang Seng was down .49%, the Straits Time Index in Singapore was up .01%, and the broad Chinese index was down 1.89%.

In Europe, the FTSE was up .51%, the DAX in Germany was up .23%, and the Spanish index was up .34%. The Dollar is up .09% against the Euro, down .36% against the British Pound, and up .22% against the Yen. That's a day after hitting several month lows against the Euro.