- Market Commentary -

March 9, 2010 (FinancialWire) (By Philip Holmes) — It looks like a quiet week lies ahead on Wall Street, with little in the way of earnings or economic news on the immediate horizon. Investors wait to see how the Greek Problem resolves while continuing a long night of birthing for health care reform.

That long night has moved from a night of cheap theater to a night of the soul, as one sixth of the U.S. economy – and a lot more politically — hangs in the balance. Negative PR from recent double-digit premium hikes by a California subsidiary of Wellpoint (NYSE: WLP) helped send down shares of other big insurers in the sector.

We hear that Democrats the U.S. House of Representatives are holding off on a plan to pass the Senate’s version of the health care reform bill on promises that big problem items in that bill would later be “fixed” in a reconciliation bill. It seems that the House doesn’t trust the Senate to fix their own bill, which barely passed the upper house the first time around.

Will we at least see a resolution to the Greek crisis? Depends. Last week there was bickering back and forth between the Germans, who wish to impose harsh terms on any bailout offered the Greek government, and Greek officials, one of whom took to calling the Germans “a bunch of Nazis.”

But there is firm consensus now that the country won’t be allowed to go completely broke. The stakes are too high for the EU overall and the euro in particular. Analysts fear that a collapse in Greece would affect future efforts at stabilizing the finances of other eurozone countries like Spain, Italy and Ireland.

Last Friday’s welcome news on unemployment should at least keep sentiment tentative, but bearing nonetheless. Tepid recovery is already priced in to the market, it seems. So we wait somewhat patiently as marble-strewn places, ancient and modern, are set to shake out some answers.

[Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=philip+holmes to see more commentaries by Philip Holmes.]

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The FirstAlert(tm) Economics Calendar lists Weekly Chain Store Sales (8:55 a.m.), Treasury auctions 3-year notes (1 p.m.).

The FirstAlert(tm) Events Calendar showcases ARTG, CAVM, TSYS, AMD at Wedbush Morgan Securities New York MAC: Management Access Conference; BKC, DLM at Goldman Sachs Consumer/Retail Leveraged Finance Conference; CAL, GR, BA, LCC at JPMorgan Aviation, Transportation & Defense Conference; CAT, URI at UBS Industrial Conference-Chicago; CNW, MAS, TSCO, AZO at Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference; CVX 2010 Security Analyst Meeting; FL Analyst Meeting; LEAP, CMCSA, TIVO, PAET at Credit Suisse Group Global Media and Communications Conference; MXIM, TLAB, RVBD, BRCM at Jefferies & Co Global Technology Conference; PFE, JNJ, MRK, MDT at Cowen and Company Healthcare Conference; VITA, HRC, SYK, ATEC at Canaccord Adams Musculoskeletal Conference.

FirstAlert(tm) Website of the Day: http://www.kitebuilder.com/

Quote of the Day: “A pin has as much head as some authors and a good deal more point.” George D. Prentice

Today is: Panic Day, Get Over It Day.

Happy Birthday: Eddie Foy, Howard Aiken, Will Geer, Mickey Spillane, Yuri Gagarin, Mickey Gilley, Bobby Fischer, Aaron Boone, Julia Mancuso.

Today in History: Napoléon Bonaparte married his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, in 1796. Giuseppe Verdi’s third opera Nabucco premiered in Milan in 1842; its success established Verdi as one of Italy’s foremost opera writers. In a five-hour battle in 1862 near Hampton Roads, Virginia, the U.S.S Monitor fought the CSS Virginia to a draw. The Barbie doll debuted in 1959. The first Ford Mustang rolled off the assembly line at Ford Motor Company in 1964. A strike in 1989 forced financially-troubled Eastern Airlines into bankruptcy. Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as surgeon general of the United States in 1990, becoming the first female and Hispanic American to serve in that position.

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