Well, the bearish case seems to be getting weaker by the day. The blowout earnings report by Apple (which, let's face it, isn't much of a shock) is almost certainly going to mega-goose the market tomorrow, and only God knows what Bernanke is going to say or do to propel things further. I am seeing more and more of this kind of story hitting home pages:

I have remained mostly in cash this month, and I'm currently long DRN and JNK as hedges. Everything else is little short positions.

I offer the charts below without further commentary. They simply illustrate what I consider thresholds of various indexes which, if crossed, each represent another nail in the bears' coffin. Maybe they'll be reached; maybe they won't. In any event, they merit observation.

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In spite of all the reasons – – analogs, statistics, stochastics – – that were emailed to me about why the market would absolutely, positively, no-doubt-about-it fall this week………it isn't happening. Indeed, the bulls have pretty much owned every single one of the eleven trading days so far this year.

The bearish case is getting weaker by the day, and the bulls were able to create breakouts across the board today…..

+ without any announcement from the Fed
+ without any big news from Europe
+ without any "stimulus" goose of any kind.

Just plain, old-fashioned, earnings-driven buying.

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They're just not going to make this easy for anyone, are they?

Last night, after the close, I was hanging out in the comments section, and I allowed myself to be persuaded that buying a big SPY position might be a good hedge. I jokingly referred to my fellow Slopers as "turd monkeys" for nudging me this way, but I'm glad for those turd monkeys this morning – – it has helped take some of the sting out of a painful morning for the bears.

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