There was a big rally today that started last night with the futures. The demimonde had its media spokesmodels out cheerleading early on. They became almost apoplectic on a slightly better than expected ISM number that was still rather dismal, all things considered.
If one bothered to look beyond the headlines to the new orders and inventories, it was apparent that they portend a further decline in activity. But that sort of thing is not said when the rally monkeys are in heat.
Stocks ran up to overhead resistance levels, and continued to be led largely by the SP futures, with the broader market lagging the push higher.
Whenever this happens it is hard not to be skeptical of the character of the rally. The Jobs Report is on Friday, with the ADP report on Wednesday morning. Consensus for the Friday Jobs is a loss of 87,000, and for the ADP report expectations are for a gain of 25,000.
SP 500
NDX
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.” Marcus Tullius Cicero