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Happy hump-day everyone. We're actually a little more than halfway to the weekend, and stocks are still going strong, shrugging off Monday's big pullback with another bullish effort today.

Yet, there's a clear lethargy here that wasn't weighing in on stocks last week. Is the rally running on fumes? It looks like it is. Volume has been anemic for the last couple of days, calling into question just how much conviction the bulls really have here after Monday's blow. That lack of volume is most evident on the nearby chart of the DIAmonds (DIA)... an ETF which, by the way, failed to make a new high even with today's bullish effort.

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Our administration is making the headlines again today with Obama asking Congress to come up with tens of billions of dollars in short-term spending cuts and tax revenue to delay automatic spending cuts scheduled to kick in March 1. Obama said Tuesday he still believes the nation should move forward with a broad package for tax reform and spending cuts. But, he says if Congress can't act before the March 1 deadline, lawmakers should at least pass a smaller package to stave off the potentially damaging effects of the cuts which are slated to take affect across-the-board.

Obama says the proposals he offered House Speaker John Boehner late last year during discussions over the so-called fiscal cliff are still on the table. And, supposedly, he isn't placing a time span or a dollar amount on the short-term plan. Officials say he will leave that to Congress, a much appreciated novel concept based on his strong-arm posturing when it comes to how he's made his stance with Congress pretty clear in the media of late.

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Good afternoon folks. We know Super Bowl weekend is approaching, and your focus may be drifting there. But, the work week isn't quite over yet, so let's take care of some last minute business so we can all completely enjoy the best part of the big game (which of course, is the commercials).

First and foremost though, you've probably already seen and digested Friday's big news that the economy created 157,000 new jobs last month. It's not a great number, especially considering economists were looking for 195,000 new payrolls. The unemployment rate also got bumped back up to 7.9%, from 7.8% a month earlier. What's so inspiring about that? Nothing. The inspiration stems from the fact that the numbers from two and three months ago were revised upward. For December, a total of 196,000 jobs were added. In November, the total was actually 247,000 new payrolls. Originally, the government had said the November total was 146,000, and that the December total was 200,000.

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Yesterday, the Fed's chairman, Ben Bernanke, reaffirmed guidance almost like an earning's report by telling the markets, and the American public, he'll continue to use his monthly bond purchase program of $85 billion until he sees fit. He also reiterated he'll keep interest rates near zero until the national unemployment rate falls to at least 6.5%, and as long as inflation stays in line with its 2% target.

Sure, numbers are numbers, but it's not always about that. What many are arguing is there's still a negative undertone to the economy that has many economists questioning the Fed's consistent moves calling them counter-productive. Some are making it pretty clear that if turning around an economy was as easy as just continuing to print money, then the world's economies would have been much richer a long time ago. What also has many concerned over the last four years is the conviction and creativity of small businesses throughout the country continues to fall short of the dynamic entrepreneurial nature this Country was built on.

Although smaller stocks have finally woken up and started trading better just this year, they've been fairly anemic in terms of growth ever since the beginning of '09, while large caps have continued to outperform in abnormal historical fashion. It could be a sign of the times the big are getting bigger, while the small, which has historically been the backbone of America, continues to struggle and find its way.

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Back on the deficit train. There's a lot of chatter out there that the current administration's aggressive monetary policies have been nothing short of a temporary fix and terribly irresponsible. Both sides of the aisle, however, have made their stances very clear in recent weeks with one side suggesting the key to continued economic recovery is to address the deficit and aggressively cut spending, while the other side is adamant that their stimulus policies and need to increase spending is the only way we'll continue to pull ourselves out of this mess and improve the economy going forward.

Maybe we should be listening to Noble Prize Winners on the topic? Henry Blodget from the Daily Ticker reported today, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has argued clearly and consistently over the past five years that U.S. government spending is critical to our economic recovery and that cutting spending now to reduce the deficit would be a disastrous mistake. Krugman won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to New Trade Theory and New Economic Geography. According to the prize Committee, the prize was given for Krugman's work explaining the patterns of international trade and the geographic concentration of wealth, by examining the effects of economies of scale and of consumer preferences for diverse goods and services.