John Caldwell Market Quotations

Some of the reason the market rallied in the previous month was because of oil going back to the mid-$50s. When you take a look at the cold snap, accompanied with the rise in energy prices, it gets a lot of investors concerned.

Clearly it's going to have some impact on the market if there is damage that will keep the port 3/8 closed.

The underlying fundamentals of the market still remain very healthy. We are looking at good solid earnings growth in the first quarter and economic growth that has bounced back.

After the market rallied hard on the Fed minutes earlier this week, the perception had been building that good, but not strong, economic data is positive because that signals the Fed having to raise rates less. It's one of those cases where good news is bad news for the economy.

Any sort of economic data that is going to make the case for solid economic growth but no need for the Fed to raise rates any further is going to be well received. The market is comfortable with one or two more rate hikes, and then a pause.

At the forefront of investors' minds are going to be earnings, and to a lesser extent, the economy. I really think that's what is going to dictate how the market behaves.