Well, folks, all eyes are on my fellow Chicagoan, who is scheduled to outline his job-creation plan tonight. We’re all holding our breaths.

I’m a man who believes in the power of prayer. I never pray for markets—I pray for things like peace on earth and the health of my family and loved ones. And I also pray that our leaders will do the right things. Right now, I’m praying that what comes out of the president’s mouth tonight is something—anything—that will create jobs.

For instance, he could propose a repatriation tax holiday—that would get the ball rolling. Or maybe he could call off his henchmen so that corporate American can do what his trillions in spending have failed to do.  Or maybe scale back some of these prosperity-killing Taxulationist policies that have created the most anti-business climate of my lifetime.

Mr. President, if you’re reading, please feel free to borrow from any of these suggestions!

Now, just because I don’t pray for markets doesn’t mean I’m not very curious to see how they react. I’m certainly not expecting Obama to turn into Ronald Reagan, but at this point, anything that helps would be a blessing. Not only for those of us who are trading and investing, but also for the 9.1% of our neighbors who are out of work—including the 414,000 newly unemployed who filed for benefits last week.

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The rally we saw yesterday in the European markets, which in turn drove our markets higher, got a little ahead of itself. The Eurocurrency took a bit of a tumble, and the German markets broke right in line with it. I’ve been saying it a lot lately, but Germany is the key to the EU, and what’s happening in Europe is what’s driving our markets here in the U.S.

Thanks to the pullback in Europe, U.S. equities opened up in the red this morning and then made some early gains. Watch this market today. We want to see if it can work its way higher throughout the session, and especially after Europe closes. That’s an indication of strength. If we see things continue to grind up this afternoon, it might indicate that the market has accepted that at least something positive might come out of the president’s speech.

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