Market Rallies on ... Something or Other

$$ - Even though Ben Bernanke gave a mixed message today, saying that the economy isn't doing much and the Fed remains at the ready, the stock action looks bullish. Sort of.

First, the market gapped up. Then, Bernanke gave his mixed message and the market reversed to the downside. Then, guess what? Yeah, another reversal back to the upside to close out the day.

Like I said yesterday, fade all the big moves. That's the money making game du jour. No, I didn't. Just being honest. Shucks, though.

Anyway, look what's rallying. Cigarettes. Utilities. Low-beta stuff. I'm still mostly in cash and low-beta stuff. It's working. Well, not the cash part. But the other stuff, right?

That's the "sort of" theory I mentioned back in the first paragraph. You'd think that the market would be led by high volatility stocks, if this were a typical bull run. But here we are moving in what seems like a 4% range back and forth, and what's at the highs are those low beta names. What's at the bottom? Semiconductors! And look at Intel's numbers after the close today. Blech!

Probably more flop and chop through earnings. Not seeing much good news in the economy. Not that there's a lot of bad news, either. Just a bunch of mediocre news.