Tom Schrader Less Quotations

More than half the Dow stocks are up. People are putting money into mainstream companies looking for quality and less volatility.

Last week was very busy and I think today there is less impetus to move. There's no earnings news, no economic news until later in the week, and so there's nothing really to move us.

Crude futures are down as investors see the storm going in a less economically vulnerable area, and that's what has got the market rallying.

The storm is drifting east, and the further east of Houston it gets, the less damage it is going to do to refineries in the Houston area.

They like the CPI news this morning and the action in oil markets, with oil down 2 percent. Investors are less worried about inflation, and with energy prices coming in a little bit, that will give more money for the consumer to spend.

This is more or less a continuation of the October effect. Since about mid-October, we've been rallying and that's traditionally the time you're going to see that. We've had some nice earnings reports in the last week supporting a rally and we're probably going to continue to see that.

We had such big gains yesterday that it is not unusual for us to consolidate a little bit. Then, oil's down but gasoline is up and that is counterbalancing each other. The economic news we had this morning was less than inspiring.