In The News...

There are no economic reports due for release today. There is encouraging news from Greece today as the country draws closer to a debt deal with its creditors before a scheduled 14.5 billion-euro payment is due on March 20. A second aid package in the amount of 130 billion-euros ($171B) is on the table but time is running out. French leader Sarkozy says that a Greek bankruptcy is not an option. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is on Capitol Hill today in front of the Senate Budget Committee speaking on the outlook for the U.S. economy. Mr. Bernanke said that the job market is far from healthy despite the recent positive developments in the uptick in the January Nonfarm payroll report. It was reported last Friday that there were 243,000 new jobs created in January and the Unemployment Rate fell to the lowest level since February of 2009 to 8.3%. The Labor Department reported its JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) numbers this morning showing that there were 3.4 million job openings compared to 3.1 in November. The job openings rate has trended upward since the end of the recession in June 2009.

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