Market Up on Goldman Beat, POMO Momo

Remember that little bit about S&P downgrading their US outlook to negative?

Oh, that was so yesterday!

Tim Geithner, the US Secretary of the Treasury, went on CNBC to convince (or try to) th public that all is well, S&P doesn't know jack and the future will be bright.

Just before that Goldman Sachs announced their 1st quarter results, beat the street and it was off to the races at 9:30 am when the bell rang.

Well, not quite. Stocks really didn't start moving higher until a little after noon. As usual, there was no reason, and no volume, so it didn't really matter that Goldman Sachs was selling off.

The Fed came in with a $6 billion POMO to invest, so away went the market. Up, up and away. Forget about those ratings agencies. What do they know?

Dow 12,266.75, +65.16 (0.53%)
NASDAQ 2,744.97, +9.59 (0.35%)
S&P 500 1,312.62, +7.48 (0.57%)
NYSE Composite 8,332.03, +54.92 (0.66%)

Winners beat losers, 3977-2526, NASDAQ new highs were 66, new lows, 32. On the NYSE, there were 58 new highs; 25 new lows. Volume? No. Dismal, horrible, Wall Street's dirty little secret.

NASDAQ Volume 1,723,697,750
NYSE Volume 4,228,962,500

WTI crude futures were up another $1.03, to $108.15. The corresponding rise in retail gas prices from $100+ per barrel oil is almost certain to derail any kind of growth for the second quarter.

Gold briefly topped $1500 for the first time ever, but pulled back from that and closed $2.10 higher, at $1,495.10. Silver (thank God you own some) continued to soar, up another 97 cents, to $43.91. Again, gold set another all-time high, silver a 31-year high, and is rapidly approaching the all-time high of $50, which it will surpass, almost for certain, within the next three months time.

It was a Tuesday. Nothing much happened in the larger scheme of things. Next Thursday, we'll see some fireworks when the government announces its first estimate of first quarter GDP, which, if you've been paying attention, was supposed to be 4%, then 3.5%, but has recently been revised down to 2%. It will likely come in below even that.

Tomorrow, existing home sales data for March, another reminder that a house is not an investment, it is a place to live, at 10:00 am EDT.