They are struggling to take the equity markets higher, but the short term downtrend is still intact.
There was an air of disassociation with reality in the markets today in honor of options expiration.
The Fed announced the results of their stress tests, and began to allow the banks to increase their dividends and buy back their stocks. This is a windfall for wealthy shareholders and corporate insiders, supplied by the Fed using what are essentially public funds, as subsidies to the monied interests.
But it does not help to revitalize the real economy, even while it continue to debase the currency. This is the root cause of a future inflationary episode that will rock the status quo to its foundations.
