It was a great feeling to walk in to the office this morning and not have stock futures down 3-4% lower.

The S&P stock index closed +2.2% higher while credit spreads tightened across the board as a momentary sense of relief washed over the markets.

After the price action of the past few weeks, today's rally almost felt surreal.

Volumes were relatively light with much of Europe closed for Assumption Day (a Catholic holiday).

Chances are that European players walk in tomorrow, see today's U.S. rally, and trade higher as well.

French President Sarkozy and German Chancellor Merkel are also meeting tomorrow; the market is expecting them to make some concrete announcements.

Statements that leave the door open for a Euro-bond program will likely be greeted by a large relief rally across the global markets.

Players will also be watching U.S. economic numbers (it is a data heavy week) to further set the tone for the markets.

With interest rates near their all-time lows, the corporate bond new issue pipeline cranked up aggressively.

The market received the new issues extremely well compared to last week; then again almost all of the new bond issues were priced in with very large new issue concessions to attract investor interest.

To illustrate, Kinross Gold, a Canadian gold miner sold $1 billion in bonds across three maturities: $500 million 10 year, $250 million 30 year, and $250 million 5 year.

The Kinross bonds priced more than 65 basis points cheap compared to the initial price talk (which was already cheap to begin with); compared to its peers such as Newmont mining, the Kinross bonds appear absurdly cheap.

It appears that as a side benefit of last week's volatility, investors are getting much bigger concessions (than they ever would) to cushion any blows from potential market volatility.

Oil prices are trading at around $87 a barrel; there is talk that the Saudis are planning a major hike in production levels to bring oil prices lower.

Any such price decrease from a production hike could be offset, however, by increased turmoil in the Middle East.

With President Obama's approval ratings at an all-time low, Texas Governor Rick Perry will make a formidable opponent, intending as he will to make the restoration of jobs a centerpiece of his Presidential campaign.

Governor Perry's pledges to pull government out of the economy, lower taxes, and encourage the growth of small and medium-sized business enterprises bodes well for the economy.

Mergers were active today with Google announcing plans to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion to gain mobile patents and expand into the hardware business.

Industrial production and housing start numbers are out on Tuesday; inflation numbers are out later in the week.