The stock market thrashes around under the control of the program traders; it is expiration week, after all. The economic news is poor - producer prices up 9.2% year-over-year, nominal retail sales up 0.1%, which means a fall in real terms. The SEC is restricting short-selling of shares of the GSEs and the brokers, which is another sign of panic - and by the way, shows the SEC’s real mission of protecting the industry from its customers. Financial stocks are up a bit, but the real energy continues to be focused on the over-loved and over-priced technology stocks, which are still well above their March lows (as represented by the Nasdaq 100, anyway). Oil fell today, although it needs to fall a lot more to make any economic difference.

The market is still ludicrously overpriced. Must be that dark energy holding it up, countering the force of gravity. Do dark pools contain dark energy?

Edit: And for a chuckle. Well half a chuckle, half a sigh. Recession-Plagued Nation Demands New Bubble To Invest In. A little too close to the truth, I fear.