By Chuck Butler

One of my chartist friends sent me a note just before I left that said the S&P 500 index was nearing a very critical level last week. Apparently, the timing of the Citicorp bailout couldn't have come at any better time for this index.

Actually, speaking of the bailout, I told the over 300 people who attended the Wealth Masters Conference on Saturday that "I fully expect the government to make a capital infusion/bailout in Citicorp next week."

Honestly, it wasn’t a hard call. The writing was on the wall, and I knew the government was just itching to bail the next firm out anyway. Citicorp was the logical choice. 

Okay, back to the bailout: I’m still wondering – how is the government going to pay for this bailout and not drag down the dollar’s value? And how long can this dollar rally last given all the rot still on the economy’s vine? Not to mention, we still have problems that no government infusion can fix. But I guess we should enjoy this for now, eh?

And then there's gold. Talk about a rally for the ages. Gold traded up to and over the US$800 in the past two trading days.

However, keeping with the theme that a rally can only last so long, it looks like the shine is off the new car this morning. Stock futures are down 1% this morning, and gold has lost US$16 since the London Morning Fixing (which happened in the wee hours of our morning while we were all still asleep). 

The euro has given back 1-cent too. So, I guess I'm answering my own question with this update of the prices, eh?