Appear - Present Simple or Present Continuous

[Penuel]

Hello everybody!
Please help me to choose the correct tense for the following:
Jack (appear) ........ happy this morning. He's smiling.

Do we have any possibilities to use Present Continuous here?
I think that Jack doesn't usually appear happy, but this morning does - can I take this reason for using Present Continuous in above sentence?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[Mordant]

No, that would be poor usage. Further, your use of "this morning" makes it abundantly clear that you are speaking about a single instance.