Cautious start watching Washington news

Small-cap stocks hovered near steady levels on the opening, outperforming the Dow and S&P 500 early on as investors took a cautious stance waiting on a smorgasbord of news events out of Washington today. At 10:01 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was up 0.60, or 0.13%, at 468.54.

Investors are waiting for the final rollout of the bank bailout plan today from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, although quite a few of the details have started to leak out. Bank stocks were lower to start things today, but have been in rally mode lately in anticipation of the news.

In addition to the bank rescue plan, the market is waiting to hear about the Senate vote on the Obama Administration’s stimulus bill. A vote is expected at some point today, possibly in the midday time frame. Last night President Obama addressed the nation to talk about the plan and to implore Senate Republicans not to take a hard partisan stance.

As if all that wasn’t enough, the market also will get a chance to respond to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who will testify about the financial crisis today before the House Financial Services Committee. Bernanke headlines will likely start to flow around 1:00 p.m. ET.

There were a couple of minor economic reports out this morning, with the Johnson Redbook chain store sales report up 0.5% for February-to-date numbers. Meanwhile, the wholesale inventories report came in at minus 1.4%, which was a bigger drop than forecast. Neither report appeared to have much of an impact on the market, as investors are much more preoccupied trying to decipher whether or not the bank bail out and fiscal stimulus plans will spark a rally in the market.

One area of strength today came from the energy arena, with energy stocks up about 0.6% shortly after the open. Energy shares gathered some support from a rally in crude oil prices, which climbed about $1.60 a barrel amid talk from OPEC . . .

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