Come on. The reason why the DOW is going up is because of the shorts??? Really? Is everytime an index of any kind goes up, it must be the shorts??? Is that the new normal?
Just look at the components of the DOW. There are only 30 of them. I will give you a hint, it starts with an E. EARNINGS.
Lets go through, I'll be short...
Alcoa- buyouts, aluminum producer, high demand for aluminum
AIG- It will never get above 73

AXP- Your favorite credit card guys
BA- High aircraft demand
C- Unfortunately, going nowhere fast
CAT- Makes big machines that are in high demand
DD- Chemical maker, chemical makers doing well, high demand
DIS- God, I dont know, who likes Disney
GE- Makes many different high demand products, global conglomerate, everyone pumping as much as they can
GM- I dunno if I have anything positive to say
HD- Going nowhere
HON- Going much higher, high demand
HPQ- Everyone loves HP, no one likes DELL
IBM- Financial engineering pushing her higher!
INTC- Getting it right, good earnings
JNJ- Buffet play, working on that AIDS vacine, going higher
JPM- yuck
KO- Everyone loves Coke
MCD- Great coffee in the morning and cheaper then SBUX
MMM- Global play on chemicals, materials and other things
MO- going nowhere
Here figure out the rest, Im too lazy to explain. I cut/pasted the list.
MRK MERCK CO INC 50.83 4:01PM ET 0.02 (0.04%) 8,421,650
MSFT MICROSOFT CP 30.03 4:00PM ET 0.21 (0.70%) 48,023,159
PFE PFIZER INC 26.08 4:00PM ET 0.17 (0.66%) 22,897,839
PG PROCTER GAMBLE CO 63.15 4:00PM ET 0.49 (0.78%) 12,873,262
T AT&T INC. 40.21 4:00PM ET 0.19 (0.47%) 14,301,298
UTX UNITED TECH 76.67 4:00PM ET 1.67 (2.23%) 7,356,737
VZ VERIZON COMMUN 42.76 4:02PM ET 1.00 (2.39%) 25,248,437
WMT WAL MART STORES 48.94 4:01PM ET 0.21 (0.43%) 11,749,564
XOM EXXON MOBIL CP 89.70 4:02PM ET 0.63 (0.70%) 22,408,599
All these companies have something going for them. Thus the DJIA is finally an investment grade vehicle again.