Morning Market Report

The trend that pits the dollar against equities is continuing this morning. Equity futures are up while the dollar is weaker. Each of three indices are up between .75% and 1% this morning. Meanwhile, the dollar is weaker against most major currencies except the Yen. It's about even against the Yen.

Meanwhile, a study by Pay Net says that small, really small businesses, may be borrowing again.

The examination of loan, lease and line of credit activity conducted by PayNet for Reuters found that U.S. businesses with less than $100,000 in outstanding debts began borrowing again cautiously this spring to invest in their businesses -- a trend that continued through the end of the study period in September.

Everyone has been saying how important that is for small businesses to borrow and expand so that's another trend to watch.

U.S. Treasury bonds are showing weakness again. The ten year U.S. Treasury bond is pushing 3.40 again. It's currently at 3.39%. That's up nearly 10 basis points from lows from the middle of last week. The yield spread between the two and ten year is currently at 2.64%. That's shrank slightly from recent highs of 2.67%. It's still an extraordinarily high and still a sign of intermediate term inflation. Crude oil is increasing. It's up a dollar a barrel and it's currently at $78.47 a barrel. Gold is also pushing a record at $1163 an ounce. Both those numbers reflect weakness in the dollar.

In the Far East, the markets were mostly up. The Hang Seng was up 1.41%, the Straits Time Index was up 1.32%, and the broader Chinese index was up .92%. In Europe, the markets were up across the board. The FTSE in London is up 1.64%, the DAX in Germany was up 1.63%, and the Spanish index is up 1.47%.

In currencies, the dollar is down by .9% against the Euro, down by the same against the British Pound, and up just slightly by .09% against the Japanese Yen.