Morning Market Report

There's lot's of news. First, the Dow moved up above 10,000 for the first time this year yesterday. The markets all had a great day. That was largely on the strength of better than expected earnings from JP Morgan Chase yesterday morning and Intel after close the day before. The last time the Dow was at 10,000 was last October. The first time, however, was nearly ten years ago. So, it's very difficult to value its current value.

This morning, the weekly first time jobless claims came out. At 514,000 that not only continues a trend of improvement but sets a nine month low. Meanwhile, September's Consumer Price Index came out this morning as well. It grew at .2%, and that's being described as a "modest" rise.

Futures are lower, however, and that follows weaker than expected earnings from both Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. The current opening is down modestly. The Dow looks to open only down about a quarter of a percent though that would put it back into four digits if it held. Bonds continue to get weaker. The ten year is now at 3.46%. That's a five basis point rise from yesterday and more importantly up nearly thirty five basis points from lows in the last two weeks. The yield spread between the two and ten year is also spreading and now it's at 2.43%. Oil has also crossed over $75 a barrel. It's currently trading at $75.04 a barrel. That also continues an up trend since it reached about $65 a barrel almost three weeks ago.

Europe and the Far East are near mirror images of each other. Markets were up nearly across the board in the Far East and the opposite in Europe. The Hang Seng in China was up .51%, the NIKKEI in Japan was up 1.77%, and the Straits Time Index in Singapore was up .14%. In Europe, the FTSE in London was down .47%, the DAX in Germany was down .41%, and the Spanish Index was down .41%.

In currencies, the Dollar is very mixed and there's plenty of volatility. It's up .29% against the Euro, but off 1.66% against the British Pound, and up 1.32% against the Yen.