The markets rallied as we continue to see bad news come in. The Case-Shiller number found housing falling another 18% for October when compared to last year's October number. The ISM for Chicago came in at 34.1, up from 33.8 in November. The key level is the 50 level, it remains at very poor levels. I know it is poor because we feel it in the steel business. Request for quotes is still coming in but actual projects being released...it's like a ghost town. Those that are being released the buyers get to name the price they want.US Treasury committed over $6 billion to GMAC and this caused investors to cheer as we head into the new year.Market breadth was strong as advancer led decliners by over 2:1, however we did see NL tick up today, on a day the markets rallied. We do not need to see this number climbing back up the wall. This is the first reading over 200 in many weeks. This may be due to some tax selling and those stocks that are beaten down people are unloading them to take the tax loss. If that is the case the NL should fall back under 200 soon.