Today it's all about rates. That was a much better-than-expected ISM manufacturing number. That clearly caught people off guard.
A lot of people have been watching that. That looks like the line in the sand.
Most of the companies that have come out haven't surprised on the downside, ... People are thinking that there may be some pent-up demand on the corporate side, and as a result they're trying to buy that group in front of what may be some improved results.
I think you're going to have people withdraw money for good, ... People are going to say, 'I'd rather bet on the New York Giants because I have a better chance of guessing the result than of knowing what some management team is up to.'
That definitely helped, ... Everybody wants to see some accountability for the stuff that's been going on, and we finally saw some people being taken away in cuffs.
We got off to a good start off of the mergers and acquisitions news, but I think people just looked over their shoulder and saw rates continuing to back up and crude drift a little bit higher, and it's given them a little bit of pause.
I don't see any reason why we would bounce -- there's no real compelling reason for people to buy. It seems like we're going to keep on undergoing pain.
There would be a little short covering rally, but I don't think it would last too long. People would worry that the Fed is seeing an economy that's dipping back into recession.
It's just typical day-before-the-holiday trading. The economic numbers that came out this morning weren't enough to sway people to be overly optimistic or overly pessimistic.
If that's taken out you're going to have a lot of people claim that we have bottomed. That's the key.