The Merry Marketeers were able to coax the SP futures to the 1100 level, in a show of support for the results of the Euopean Bank Stress Tests. Huzzah!
The results were rather anemic, even given the somewhat unrealistic nature of the tests.
I can understand that they did not include a sovereign default by the likes of Greece, but that they included only the banks' trading portfolios, and not their commercial loan portfolios, seemed almost astonishing.
Reggie Middleton does a good job discussing the European Stress Tests here and here
But in the meanwhile, the increasing trivialization of the capital markets by the financial engineers in the service of their nonsensical schemes seems more alarming than anything else I could imagine.
Can they do what they did in 2005, and break the market out to the upside and inflate yet another financial asset bubble? They may very well do this. And it will once again end badly, much worse than the last. But why should they care, or stop, while they continue to become rich?
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray: and you, Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell Satan and all of the other evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.