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The stock market was being its usual volatile self this afternoon when the news that Standard & Poors reaffirmed AAA ratings for bond insurers MBI and ABK. Surprisingly, we had a repeat of Friday’s action when traders bought the rumor. Today they bought the news and the market spent the last couple of hours heading north. While its nice to see the market going up for a change, there are all sorts of technical reasons why it could be running out of steam. We still have not made a break for the upside. If we do, then I might change my tune, but until then I’m still cautious. There is probably more bad news on the way before we see a turnaround. Like for example after the market closed we learned that MBI has eliminated its dividend. Guess which way that stock moved after hours?

- JD