Market Talk

- So much for all the political drama surrounding Bernanke’s confirmation. Senate votes 70-30 to reappoint Bernanke for second four-year term as Fed chairman.

- Seamy AIG bailout details aren’t exactly flattering for the Fed. “No matter which way you look at it, the picture that is emerging of the Federal Reserve, as revealed by the ongoing probes into its AIG bailout, is singularly unflattering,” Yves Smith writes at naked capitalism.

- Is the decline in emergency claims a blip on the screen or start of a new trend? Next week should offer better clues. “Bottom line, the labor market data in terms of hiring is still very cloudy and the pace of firings has stopped getting better,” says Miller Tabak’s Peter Boockvar.

- Year-long downward trend in initial jobless claims seems to remain intact, but job growth doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon. “The great question is whether we can generate net growth on a sustained basis,” James Picerno writes at The Capital Spectator. “We are knee-deep in the middle of this transition and early clues of how the shift is faring will come,” over the next few weeks.

- Still, the four-week moving average of initial jobless claims rose for the third consecutive week, a trend that will “drive both the Fed and the administration crazy if it lasts too much longer,” Mish says.

- With Google (GOOG) out of the picture, local review site Yelp turns to Elevation Partners for funding. “The Elevation bet means any public offering has likely been pushed back by a year or more,” MediaMemo blogger Peter Kafka says.

- Newsosaur blogger Alan Mutter rounds up a list of media pundits who are skeptical that Apple’s (AAPL) iPad can save the struggling print media.

- Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig’s dissent yesterday doesn’t necessarily represent a huge shift in FOMC’s policy environment. “I find it inconceivable that the Fed would be keen on normalizing rate policy without a substantial decline in unemployment, absent of course an unexpected surge of inflation,” Tim Duy writes at Economist’s View.

- A frosty January for stocks and what some folks think it means looking forward.

- J.D. Salinger passes away at 91.