Awaiting Paulson

Good morning. News that Caryle Capital is on the verge of collapse and big selloffs in Asia have cast a negative tone. February retail sales also came in below expectations while weekly initial jobless claims were better. Gold and oil prices are setting new highs.

Premarket gainers: WX, EFUT, FMT, FRE, GSIC, PGNX, TBSI, INOD, GOLD, AIRM, GEOY, TTWO, and COIN.

Premarket losers: SIGM, ATAR, TMA, SUF, VM, DRYS, MW, NGAS, JAS, BSC, STP, ISIS, AIG, ACH, CFC, ALVR, DNDN, FINL, FSLR, AMZN, and HOTT.

At 10:AM we have a report on business inventories and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is scheduled to speak about new efforts to rescue the capital markets. The bulls better hope that Paulson pulls an ace out of his sleeve in that speech.

A lot of stops surely have been set at Monday's lows and failure to hold above S&P 1310 will put us in a precarious state. As always, keep the financials (see XLF) front and center for intraday tells. This is going to be tricky day to navigate, but we'll have a better idea after Paulson. Have a great day!