In today's Morning Coffee Brief  we find yesterday's U.S. equity markets saw its first day controlled by the bulls on bullish global data most notable from Germany’s export data report.  The report indicates export levels not seen since the crisis started in 2008.

This morning we find U.S. futures being weighed down by the pending FOMC meeting minutes scheduled to be released at 2pm. EDT.

It’s also worth noting that at 8:15 traders will receive the ADP Non-Farm Employment report but as many know we do not put much stock into the ADP report and use it as more of directional call on the non-Farm payroll report.

Two headlines caught our attention on the news screens in this morning coffee brief.  First is the speculation of Ford’s (F, quote) CEO Alan Mulally announced he will be staying with Ford through at least 2014 and went on to say he has no attentions to leave Ford to take the top job at Microsoft (MSFT, quote)

Now that we have the clarity on who will be at the helm for Ford this should help remove some burden of the stock.

U.S. stocks received a downgrade to Underweight form Neutral by HSBC.  HSBC is siting its prediction that the U.S. bull market is ending as the Fed continues to move forward with its tapering actions.  It’s likely the Fed tapering will be the downside catalyst despite the market’s ability to shrug off the first round of tapering late last year.

Morning Coffee Brief  - Commodities

Taking a look at the emerging patch we find this morning that WTI Crude Oil is trading basically flat at $93.96 (+0.30%) while natural gas is over a 1 percent higher, trading at $4.346 on speculation of another day and evening of frigate cold weather blanking the U.S.

Equity only readers can gain exposure to WTI Crude Oil through the United States Oil Fund (USO, quote) ETF that seeks to reflect the performance, less expenses, of the spot price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light, sweet crude oil. The USO will invest in futures contracts for WTI light, sweet crude oil, other types of crude oil, heating oil, gasoline, natural gas and other petroleum based-fuels that are traded on exchanges. It may also invest in other oil interests such as cash-settled options on oil futures contracts, forward contracts for oil, and OTC transactions that are based on the price of oil.

Gold continues to remain weak as gold bugs come to the realizations that the Fed is likely to continue its tapering of its bond buying program. Gold this morning is trading around $1,227.80 down -0.15% with silver taking a slightly harder hit of -0.74% $19.64.

Equity only readers gain exposure to the gold through the SPDR Gold Shares Trust (GLD, quote) ETF that seeks to replicate the performance, net of expenses, of the price of gold bullion. The GLD trust holds gold, and is expected to issue baskets in exchange for deposits of gold, and to distribute gold in connection with redemption of baskets.  Readers can also access the gold market through the iShares COMEX Gold Trust (IAU, quote) ETF seeks to replicate, net of expenses, the day-to-day movement of the price of gold bullion.

Equity only readers can gain access to the silver futures market through the iShares Silver Trust (SLV, quote) ETF that seeks to match the futures silver price less the trust’s expenses and liabilities. The fund is intended to constitute a simple and cost-effective means of making an investment similar to an investment in silver. Although the fund is not the exact equivalent of an investment in silver, they provide investors with an alternative that allows a level of participation in the silver market through the securities market.

Morning Coffee Brief - Earnings

As we move into the earnings season this morning we will get two reports to ahead of the bell that we want to watch.

Monsanto (MON, quote) and Constellation Brands (STZ, quote)

Economic Calendar is light as trader wait for Friday’s non-Farm Payroll report.