• The dark clouds of yesterday’s market collapse are being replaced by a beautiful Spring morning.  After a severe cold snap we are headed to the mid-60’s with bright sun.
• For the 650,000 newly jobless in February this morning may not hold the same allure. It appears we are headed to 10% unemployment and first quarter GDP decline of 8%.  Both shocking numbers but am wondering if we will look back at this as being the low.
• Retail sales were surprisingly good recently.  At least at the low end like Wal-Mart and Family Dollar, etc.  High end is still crippled.
• Gold is up this morning after bouncing off recent lows two days ago.  Gold scraps are evidently being exhausted and dealers are again buying the real stuff.
• Is oil price pointing to improved industrial demand, cold weather, or projected production cut backs by the Saudis?  For what ever reason it is strong.  Interestingly, BP said yesterday that they need $60 oil to continue with both the dividend and to maintain exploration at current levels.  Exxon, will raise their exploration modestly and cut back their stock repurchase program from $8 billion to $7 billion this year.  The company has been ridiculed recently as being overly cautious with exploration.  In effect, XOM hasn’t changed their model which is finely tuned to maximize profits.
• Editorial and op-ed pages have taken a dark tone toward Obama’s programs.  His proposed programs are being blamed for much of our current malaise.  I agree that some of the ideas are a bit much but have a hard time finding a direct correlation between Obama and market behavior.
• Glad I held on to Wednesday’s purchases but wasn’t feeling so swift yesterday.  We’ll see how the day unfolds but the market appears to be laughing off the jobs report.

Make it a great, great Friday!  Its the weekend!