Jester,

 Both of us have mentioned the low volume environment in the past.  When I say this rally, I guess I should have said "relief rally" (better yet, sucker's rally).  Ever since we bounced off the S&P 1829 bottom, most days have been on very poor volume. Not reassuring, and suggest this could be  a dead cat bounce.

The news has not really improved. True, the US is the best looking house in an ugly neighborhood, but the rest of the world still looks quite shaky. In fact, we could say Europe is still in recession, ditto Latin America, and Asia continues to slow down.  Every country that exports raw materials to China is hurting. The Dollar continues to be strong, and corporate America is still not loosening up the purse strings so CapEx is not increasing.  In short, we are still facing a profit recession. I fear that the longer this persists the more chances we face of GDP contracting more.