First, let me state right up front that I am an unabashed supporter of short selling.  I have shorted in the past and will do so again in the future.  (I am restricted from shorting stock at my place of employment but am able to short ETFs.)  Shorting is not only a legitimate practice, it is a necessary one.  Accusing shorts of being unpatriotic is a ridiculous assertion propagated mainly by the pitchfork crowd and vested interests, in my opinion.

Jeremy Siegel is defending criticism of his argument that Standard & Poor's is incorrectly calculating market profits.  Siegel argues that profits within the S&P 500 index should be weighted according to market capitalization, not on an absolute basis as Standard & Poor's currently constructs the estimate of aggregate earnings.  Thus, AIG, which has a tiny market cap but a massive loss should have its loss scaled down to the company's relative market cap when tallying up the earnings estim

From my favourite cartoonist, Tom Toles.

Volume today was 7.4 billion on the NYSE Composite, which is huge for a day before a holiday. 

Over the past two years, volume has averaged 3.58 billion on days before holidays, 4.06 billion excluding Christmas and New Years.  The next heaviest volume day prior to a holiday was before Good Friday last year, when 6.09 billion shares traded hands.  In 2007, volume the day before Good Friday was 2.29 billion.

Gold appears to be putting in a double top. 

The Volatility Index, aka the VIX, is rolling over.  If the VIX were a stock, it would be a sell.

A lawyer may be next in line to succeed current CEO Ken Lewis.

Tuesday's volume on the NYSE Composite was 5.0 billion.  The move over the past few weeks has been on lighter than average volume.  However, yesterday was the lightest volume day since February 13, the Friday before the President’s Day long weekend.  This fits into the recent trend of the market rising on heavier volume and pulling back on lighter volume, which is generally bullish.

We will only know in hindsight, but this sure looks like a bottom in the stock of Apple.

The manufacturing PMI in China came in above 50.  Generally, a reading above 50 signals economic expansion.