Morning Market Report

Today is the 22nd anniversary of Black Monday in 1987 when the Dow lost 22%. While we've had a lot of volatility in the markets recently, I think everyone would be stunned if we had that kind of a day. All three indices were down on Friday and that followed a bad day on Thursday as well. Futures are pointing up modestly this morning. A lot of companies including Hasbro, Texas Instruments, Apple and Boston Scientific will announce earnings before, during, and after the market hours today. Also, Ben Bernanke will give a speech on the economy this morning and any time the Fed Chairman speaks the market listens.

Meanwhile, bonds are pointing just a bit weaker. The ten year U.S. Treasury bond is now at 3.42%. That's up just one basis point from the close on Friday. It had a relatively good day on Friday losing five basis points and snapping a losing streak that was taking up the better part of a week. That's still about thirty basis points higher than the lows it reached at the beginning of October. Mortgage rates have tipped just above 5% on the 30 year mortgage as well but both are still trading at relatively strong levels. Meanwhile, oil is now pushing $80 a barrel. It's currently trading at $78.42 a barrel. That's down 11 cents from the close on Friday however there is a clear upward trend that still hasn't been broken.

Markets around both the Far East and Europe were up nearly unanimously. There was only a couple of stragglers among the major indices that didn't follow suit. The Hang Seng in China was up 1.23%, the NIKKEI in Japan was down .21%, and the Straits Time Index in Singapore was up .13%. In Europe, the FTSE in London was up 1.32%, the DAX in Germany was up 1.29% and the Spanish Index was up 1.5%.

In currencies, the dollar is off slightly against the Euro by .11%, against the British pound it's up .17%, and against the Japanese Yen it's down .06%.