Tom Hanna's Lifestream

Commentary and Overnight TradingThe big question Thursday morning is how US markets will react to the bombshell Chrysler dropped after the market close Wednesday: all plants closed for at least a month starting Friday. Bear in mind that, while this is awful news for temp workers and suppliers, it won't lower costs enough to keep the company afloat long term because Chrysler's union workers will get on average 95% of their pay under the job bank agreement.In early overnight trading (1:30 AM Eastern) US stock market futures are mixed - the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 13 points, the NASDAQ down 12.5 points and the S&P 500 up 0.7 - as are Asian indexes. Oil is down more than 1% on top of Wednesday's 8% drop to put the NYMEX crude future below $40. The dollar is up strongly against the yen, up slightly against the pound and the Canadian dollar and down slightly against the euro. Update and correction: US stock market futures are up - DJIA by 65 points, S&P 500 by 6.4 points. NASDAQ futures are up 5, but I'm having to get the numbers from an alternate source as my usual source isn't reporting NASDAQ - the previous "down 12.5" was actually the 12/17 close. The dollar is now up substantially against the pound and down substantially against the euro. Oil is up, with the NYMEX contract back above $40.Wednesday's Economic News Consumer Price Index (CPI) - November 2008 CPI-U: 212.425 Monthly Change: Down 1.9% Year-to-year Change: Up 1.1