If you look at Fed funds futures for December, they are indicating that the Fed will take a breather at one of the remaining meetings this year. It's been one of the positives in the last week as it runs through investors' psyches.
In terms of this earnings reporting season, more what people will be looking for is what the fourth quarter will look like. Nine out of the last 10 times, the fourth quarter has been higher, so we'll be playing close attention to any kind of guidance we get.
Right now, for the short term, the market is probably going to continue on this path for a little bit, ... Unless we get some dissipation of headwinds facing the market, we have a tough running ahead.
If we can spend enough time below $60, I think that may act as a positive for markets.
The three things we'll digest this week are earnings and guidance for the fourth quarter, and the long-term forecast for energy prices.
I think that's on the heels of the latest tropical storm going through the Caribbean that may have an impact on supply.
You look at the past three days, we're down, up and down again. Without any real catalyst, and really, without knowing what the Fed will do, we're going to bounce around here for a while.
Depending on how you look at it, (Citigroup's earnings) only beat by 2 cents, ... It's got to be better than two pennies to get people that excited.
The market continues to raise the level of tolerance it has for high energy prices.
I think one of the conundrums the market faces is that we continue to see energy prices go higher. It's going to be hard to get the market to rally much this week with oil starting at $68.
