Obama says 'We will rebuild, we will recover'

If optimism and the ability to acknowledge problems on the way to dealing with them are any indicators, U.S. stock markets should open higher Wednesday and remain higher throughout the day, on the strength of President Obama's first address to a joint session of Congress.

Obama laid out an ambitious agenda in a speech that forced listeners to remember that the president wants to achieve his goals -- on health care, energy, education, Social Security, national security -- in the same year that he and Congress are working to fix the banking system, get credit flowing again, and end a pronounced U.S. recession that has already resulted in more than 3.5 million job layoffs.