All Things in Moderation

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change	Percent
S&P Futures	1311	0.2	0.02%
Eurostoxx Index	2442.2	15.200	0.63%
Oil (WTI)	98.97	0.640	0.65%
LIBOR	0.5601	-0.001	-0.18%
US Dollar Index (DXY)	79.746	-0.410	-0.51%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield	2.06%	0.04%

Congrats to the Pats and G-Men.

Markets are slightly higher this morning as Greek bondholders have made their best and final offer to the EU and IMF. Much of Asia was closed overnight in observance of the Lunar New Year.

Even Krugman is figuring out the economy is improving. He notes that housing has been a drag on the economy, but six years into the bust, it is becoming less and less of a drag as the excesses have been largely worked off. If housing becomes a positive, it could finally set the stage for the virtuous economic cycle we have been waiting for.

Of course Krugman takes shots at Obama for “giving into Republican demands that he slash spending” and at Bernake for giving in to Republican demands that it tighten money, positing that we wouldn’t be on the slow road to recovery if we had simply listened to him. He also goes on to slay the Bush dragon and the ECB dragon as well. The Fed tightened? Obama slashed spending? Whatever, Paul. I used to like Krugman when he was just an economist, now he is more of left wing Larry Kudlow.

Earnings Season continues this week with a ton of reports. The biggest names will be Apple, Boeing, and McDonalds, but there are a lot of industrials and energy names reporting as well. In economic data, we have the FOMC decision this week (will be interesting to see if the recent economic strength is noted in the statement). Durable Goods and Leading Economic indicators will be good data points this week.