Bond Yields In Italy Ease Further

The market is flying in early trading on a further sigh of relief in Italy. The country's Senate passed a new austerity plan and that is being cheered in their markets. Bond yields in the country have eased back to 6.65% from as high as 7.40% earlier in the week.

This has helped Europe's stock markets rally, and has pushed the euro higher as well. With commodities taking their cue from the euro lately, most are higher on the day. Oil prices have rallied all the way up to $99, while gold prices are also higher near $1777.

In economic news, Consumer Sentiment for November (Univ. of Mich.) rose to 64.2 from 60.9 last month. That's a pretty big jump for consumer sentiment at a time when most media reports would have you believe consumer sentiment can only keep going down.

In corporate news, Disney reported better than expected EPS and its stock is nicely higher.

The S&P 500 was set to have second down week, but if today's rally holds it will end with a gain for the week. Not so for the Nasdaq, which will most likely have a second down week. AAPL continues to lag the market pretty badly which has weighed on the Nazz, but I think it will rally again into year-end.

The bond market is closed for Veteran's Day and yesterday the yield on the 10-year rose to finish at 2.05%.

As for the VIX, it is 9% lower today sitting just below the 30 level that I have been keeping an eye on.

Trading comment: I can't remember a time when the market was more driven by Europe and the euro than it is today. While sentiment in the stock market has improved this week, lots of credit gauges are still flashing caution signs. We are trying to stay balanced in our accounts. In recent weeks we have added to some stocks that have been acting better, but we also still have on some of our inverse etf hedges as the S&P 500 has yet to have a convincing close above its 200-day average for more than a day.

long AAPL, SH