UPTREND IN RATES CONTINUES...
AS DOES THE UPTREND IN MARKETS

We have taken out 3% on the 10 year this morning before jobless claims and now that we have the number we see rates reacting little to the slight increase in claims. The rise in rates is telling us that the markets are normalizing here, while in Europe we wait to see what the ECB will do with regards to buying up soverign debt. If the ECB does the same thing the fed did here, then look for bond yields here to continue to rise.


And of course rising yields are going to have an impact on mlps to some degree. Yesterday we saw the index down on a strong up day. Enterprise (EPD) was the big drag certainly and it distorted yesterday's action. However one needs to raise an eyebrow here that MLPS are no longer making new all time highs on a daily basis. It appears that for now the leadership is shifting away from this group and going elsewhere. So we should watch as other areas outperform, how much do we underperform. And really is this a big surprise after after 2 years of gains totalling well over 100% from the bear market lows.

Spectra Energy (SEP) becomes the latest to sell equity and the stock is down 1 and change in the pre market. Not much else is going on this morning as far as corporate news and we have nothing on the upgrade downgrade list so far. Nat gas is rallying this morning ahead of inventory numbers. Cold weather will be the theme for the next 2 weeks in the Northeast and Midwest US. Euro markets are higher as are stock futures ahead of the open. The dollar is down against most major currencies.