BRUSSELS FIDDLES WHILE
ATHENS (OR EVENTUALLY ROME) BURNS!

To the surprise of some (but not all) the ECB did nothing on interest rates. The markets seemed to have priced in a cut. Euro markets have come off their highs but remain higher. Stock futures were up about 70 points pre open but have come back to almost flat as of this post. Of course the markets (yet again ) rallied sharply from that 10,450 bottom on Tuesday morning and we're up back near 10,900. The last rally took us from 10,650 to 11,200 so you have to wonder if we can only go so far here, especially if we keep seeing lower highs and lower lows.

MLPS took another trip down under 320 before bouncing and got back another 5 yesterday which takes us almost to break even on the week. No news this morning but Citigroup is doing a wholesale cut of price targets on coal stocks this morning and they cut the targets on Alliance Resource and Alliance Holdings (ARLP,AHGP) and they also cut the target on Natural Resource Partners(NRP). Price target moves don't often move stocks too much but we'll keep an eye on this. Western Gas however gets an upgrade to buy from Stifel. That might move the stock a bit.

Not much else going on this morning. The euro is down, stock futures remain higher but off the highs. Euro markets are higher but off their highs on the non event from the ECB. Gold is down a little but silver is up a little. Tomorrow we get the employment number which will get all the attention between now and then. Crude is flat and brent is a little lower ahead of the open.