I don't get the stock market any more...

These are the top six stories on thestreet.com today:

* Caterpillar Swings to Loss on Layoffs Charge
* Merck Misses Estimates, Sales Drop
* DuPont Net Falls 59%; Lowers Outlook
* IBM Stung by Currency Fluctuations
* Delta Has Quarterly Loss, Sees Profit for '09
* United Tech Net Drops on Weak Order Trends

It's puzzling to me that the stock market is up 84 points amid this negative earnings news.

If anyone gets it, could you please clue me in?

and there's nothing unexpected.

...in Feb and March--was talk of the "glimmers"!

Oh the glimmers! They would glow so brightly, sprout wings and save us all from Depression Man!

The media talked as if it was all turning around. I heard CNBC call the bottom several times.

So....wouldn't horrendous earnings news from multiple companies be contrary to the "sparkle-glimmer-silver-lining" theory that they've
been touting for the past few months?

I'm just wonderin...

Losses, layoffs, sales drops, lower outlooks, currency fluctuations and weak order trends were all less than expected.

...the stock market is up because we're not as low in the dungeon as they expected????

And they make this analysis with a straight face?

AMAZING!

There are always plunging stocks and rising stocks. The total of those stocks is what makes the stock market rise or fall.

And really, it's not even a total. All of the key indexes that get reported are based on a few stocks that are supposed to be key indicators. The Dow Jones--which is what they usually mean when they say "Wall Street," is just one index for one stock market. There is also the NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange, foreign stock markets...

It's all an estimate. It's a good estimate over the long run, but it is possible for the market to be weaker or stronger than the Dow Jones Average. Watching the market daily instead of over the quarter or year is a bad indicator of anything. For instance, sometimes just because the market falls too far investors start a buying frenzy, or because it is too high they sell.

one being that those are today's headlines. People with enough influence to move the markets probably knew all these items yesterday. And look what happened then.

Another is that none of those items is a huge surprise and none is an economy-changing development.

All of which means that technicals and longer-term considerations are more important than daily headlines. Most indices appear to be forming rounded tops. Yesterday was a big down day, but probably an overreaction. Today fits the medium-term trend by being an up day.

Check out the daytraders at Clearstation.com. Even people who do this for a living are evenly divided on what's going to happen next.

of another bailout of one sort or other.

as Tyler Durden says. See:



:sarcasm: