Daily State of Markets: Waiting on Confirmation

David Moenning submits: Good morning. Traders dealt with an abundance of inputs on Thursday; while the news was definitely not positive across the board, it appears that the end result was. Thus, the argument can be made that when a market stops going down on bad news, it means that those who wanted to sell have likely already done so.

David Moenning submits: Good morning. Stocks did a lot of nothin' on Wednesday as traders attempted to discern if the worries about China were overblown and if the renewed contagion fears stemming from a couple of the PIGI'S were worthy of further corrective action. The bears argue that the dynamic duo of China and Ireland/Portugal represent "dueling dangers" for anyone long equities these days.

David Moenning submits: Good morning. As I wrote in this weekend's Big Picture State of the Markets report, I believe strongly that the key to success in this business over the long-term is to stay in tune with the driving forces of the market at all times. You don't have to agree with what is causing the market do its thing, but you must be able to objectively identify the reason(s) behind the move.

David Moenning submits: Good morning. Stocks started off strong on Wednesday on the back of a batch of decent data out of China and then really got moving to the upside when traders saw that Ben Bernanke had put the possibility of more quantitative easing in black and white.

David Moenning submits: Good Monday morning and welcome back. Unlike the majority of last week, Friday's trading session had a plethora of data inputs to weigh before decisions could be made. There were earnings from some big names, GDP numbers out of China, inflation at the consumer level in the U.S., not one but two reports on U.S. manufacturing, and a report on the state of the consumer from the University of Michigan.

David Moenning submits: Good morning. Wall Street is supposed to be all but vacant this week as traders and investors alike focus first on family and the Thanksgiving holiday, and then on their shopping lists for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. However, the historical tendencies appear to have been brushed aside this year as traders have struggled with the question of which is more important right now: fear or reality.

David Moenning submits: Good morning. After two weeks of corrective action, the key question stock traders face at the moment is: Are the bulls are back on track after last week's strong finish? The bears will argue that Thursday and Friday's move higher was merely an oversold bounce coupled with some options expiration shenanigans. But as one might expect, the bulls have a slightly different view of the action.

David Moenning submits: Good morning. Let's see here... QE II was a bit more robust than expected, the election results suggest that the environment ought to be a little less hostile for business, and the economic data - including the all-important jobs report - has been coming in largely above consensus lately.