Morning News

• Futures are pointing to a flat open this morning.

• European markets are trading higher so far today.

• In Tokyo the Nikkei 225 had a nice pop to the upside.

• Crude oil is $93.84 per barrel.

• Wholesale gasoline is up to $2.40 per gallon.

• Natural gas is sitting at $8.54 per unit.

• Gold is currently $912.00 per ounce.

• Weekly jobless claims will be released at 8:30 this morning.

• Trade gap data for the month of December will be released before the market opens this morning.

• Energy Dept. will release weekly natural gas inventories at 10:30 this morning.

• Yesterday's action had the Dow close 178 points higher, the Nasdaq finished 53 points higher, and the S&P was up 18 points.

• Ben Bernanke will testify before the Senate Banking Committee at 10:00 this morning.

• Yahoo reportedly exploring options with News Corp.

• Morgan Stanley reportedly set to fire 1,000 workers.

• Baidu.com out with quarterly results which show a big rise in 4th quarter profit.

• Comcast quarterly profit up 54%

Budd Foxx