It’s always hard to read anything into market action ahead of a 3-day weekend

I know everyone would like to make sense of global stock markets today—but the upcoming three-day weekend in the United States makes that really, really difficult. I’m not sure that any news or any news interpretation carries much weight today against the desire of Wall Street professionals to reduce the chance of anything blowing upon them while the markets are closed.

Bernanke says the Fed will stay the course

Nothing new this morning in Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. And that’s what the market wanted to hear. Bernanke reiterated that the Federal Reserve remains convinced that the job market is weak and that consumer price inflation is low.