Much good news today, but four days in a row of rallying would be extraordinary.

Weekly jobless claims fell 14K to 529K a welcomed sign in the holiday season and Tiffany topped income estimates.

The EU drafted a $256B two-year recovery plan requires that the 27 governments of the European Union work together with a stimulus plan representing a significant 1.5 percent of EU gross domestic product.


China cuts interest rates in an effort to boost economic growth and private borrowing, China took its biggest cut since 1997, 1.08% from a satanic 6.66% to, to a good-fortune 5.58%. Beijing is trying to shore up consumer and investor confidence. Communist leaders worry about rising job losses -- especially in export industries hit by weak global demand -- and possible unrest. Just this week, the World Bank cut its forecast for China's growth next year from 9.2% to 7.5%, the lowest level since 1990.

The USA treasury Department unveiled a new rescue program that will also require any institution participating in the program to comply with its restrictions on executive compensation including limitations on the institution’s expenditures or bonuses, to protect the taxpayers’ interests and reduce ongoing risks to the financial system.

Asian markets were up; European markets await hint of USA market direction. Only if we continue the market bounce will we likely see the US markets advance a fourth day without shaking out some Jim Cramer sellers.

At the top of the market Jim Cramer's advice was only to buy stocks making new tops. Studies show investors made no money following that advice in a bull market and lost their shirts this year. Now that he is down 40% to 50% he advises people to sell on advances near the market bottom and buy back on declines. So far that is churning in the highly volatile market and reducing what little money his followers still have.

We used to publish as BoltonCT on Suite101. We test several indicators including an S&P parabolic SAR method we call our Re-Spiral method that gives a start and end date to cherry pick in and out of the market. During the last year the buy and sell periods were as follows.

Sell 7-3-07 to 11-02-07
Buy 2-27-08 to 4-4-08
Sell 5-28-08 to 6-12-08
We are now in a buying test period.