The market has a nice rebound after yesterday's selloff. It is quite apparent from today's action that yesterday's selloff is more like profit taking than a reversal. Volume is on the light side just like other Fridays. The economic news this morning is mostly positive, indicating the economy is still doing fine. Oil hits another intra-day historical high today. As we are going to enter the busiest portion of the earning season next week, how the guidance looks like will have a meaningful impact on the market performance for the rest of this year.

All major averages are retreating from their previous highs with Nasdaq taking the leadership role again, except this time to the downside. Some market observers attribute the intra-day reversal to comments made by an EU member on inflation concern. But quite frankly, I think the market deserves a short term pullback anyways after going up more than 15% since the Aug 17th low. The US dollar gets weakened again against major currencies while both Gold and Oil prices are moving higher. Wal-mart's higher-than-expected guidance did give the market a boost in the morning but several other retailers were disappointing. Since tomorrow is Friday and next week marks the 20th anniversary of the "Black Monday", it will be interesting to see whether history will repeat itself(just joking).

The market was closed mixed on this Wednesday. Alcoa's so-so earnings along with several warnings from refiners didn't give investors a reason to buy more. However, it seems that investors didn't really punish those disappointed names either. On the other hand, if the news is good, investors will reward them heavily, as can be seen in the case of Costco. If this pattern holds, the market is definitely on the bulls' side. Tech stocks again led the market. Commodities were doing well today as the US dollar got weakened against other currencies. Both tomorrow and Friday will bring several economic reports and it will be interesting to see how the market will react to them.

All three major averages moved sharply higher after the release of the Fed minutes. As Ndaq is now back above 2800, a level that hasn't been touched since Jan 2001. The minutes didn't really indicate that the Fed is going to make further cuts. Any future policy decision ill be dependent on economic data, which really says nothing. Currently the market is still optimistic that there is a good chance the Fed will at least make one more cut before the ear end. However, as I mentioned before, if the economic data are not as gloomy as some economists suggest, the Fed may disappoint the market. This is one of the biggest risks or the next few weeks(remember the Fed won't care whether a company is reporting good or bad numbers). Today's trading volume is on the light side. Both Gold and Oil prices have a rebound after yesterday's drop. With Alcoa being the first Dow component to report earnings tonight, we are officially entering the earning's season. Again, guidance is more important than actual numbers.

The market moved little at this Columbia's Day as the bond market is closed and both Canada and Japan markets are closed for public holiday. The trading volume is very light. US dollar got strengthened against both Yen and Euro while most commodities were closed lower. Several tech names, including Apple, Google and Rimm, continued to lead the market. As most US indices and many emerging markets were creating new highs last week, some caution should be taken. For one thing, the credit market turmoil is not completely over. The LIBOR spread remains much higher than the pre-crisis level, so does the high yield bond spread. Second, according to several chain retailors, consumers seem to tighten their wallets somewhat after the turmoil. Third, the Fed minutes for the Sep 18th meeting will be released tomorrow and investors will try to look for signs that the Fed hasn't done its rate cutting job. However, whether investors will get what they want is still questionable.