Quote from BenChi:
the dow is up almost 400 points and there is not a bull in sight! has anyone considered for a moment that staff of the federal reserve, a group of very highly accomplished economists might be more correct than a chatroom full of doubters and flamers? has anyone considered that injecting liquidity and cutting the rates to allow banks and businesses to function and letting the dollar go to narrow the trade deficit might just be a good idea? have we considered that buying 500 excellent companies in fortress america while the dollar is cheap and the stock market is down 10% might be an attractive prospect for foreigners? need i continue?
You could be right or wrong, it matters not, because you are making the all too common mistake of assuming that the day to day movement of markets reflects economic reality, or that there is some deeper reason underlying market movement.. Nothing could be further from the truth. Only when averaged over a very long time is the market liable to reflect the broader economy. Day to day movement is determined by the psychological mindset of participants in response to their own recent successes or failures, various true and untrue, short-lived news events and economic reports, all of which are instantaneously reflected in market price according to the efficient markets hypothesis that, fortunately, real markets don't obey, and in reaction to moves by major market participants who may have a stake in futures being pumped up overnight when it is relatively easy to do it, or in pushing prices up or down at times of low volume, when again it is relatively easy, and ultimately in response to liquidity demands of the moment. In other words, in general, markets go up because they are going up, and down because they are going down.
Short term market action has nothing to do with whether Bernanke and the Fed Board of Governors have it right or not.