Market treads water waiting for... whatever comes next

As of this moment, the stock market is basically treading water and going nowhere (no major decline.) That's a good thing. Despite the reasonably good news about Italy, there is still a lot of uncertainty and general unease about "what happens next" – for Italy, Europe, and the U.S. economy as well. This is also good because it is "real" and not poisoned with a fantasy bias either up or down. Markets should be based on reality and not imagined hope or irrational fear.

 

This is a typical market behavior – make a big move based mostly on psychology, adjust a little, and then wait for some real, hard data to guide further adjustment.

 

The good news is that despite the anxiety over Europe the market is not continuing on a steep decline. That really says that people really do believe that "the fix is in" and the the EU will bail out its sovereign debt, albeit with appropriate haircuts.

-- Jack Krupansky