1

First, don't confuse economics with the stock market, especially on a day-to-day basis.  Sure, it all relates in the long run, but there can be serious disconnects for long periods of time.

Second, the market reaction is often based on perception.  If enough people perceive that all the bad news is now out, it becomes time to buy.  This makes the stock market a leading economic indicator a lot of the time.

Finally, there's just buying pressure vs. selling pressure.  The daily supply and demand.  Many have been speculating that one or more big hedge funds have been unwinding recently, so if that selling has abated, there won't be much selling overhead, so you can get a big rally, often on fairly light volume.  There's also short covering, and various other buy/sell imbalances which can occur.

2 Part of it is tied to the fact traders look to the Feds to help them out and at least appear to be doing something, irrespective of whether it is the right thing to do for the Free Market.

3

It's not economics--it's people being dumb, panicky, animals which the media reinforces by feeding them a steady diet of doom and gloom.

The entire consumer confidence rating is meaningless--everyone just parrots what they 'know' is 'true': we're all fucked, end of story, even if the evidence isn't exactly comporting with that belief (and I stress the word belief because it isn't usually grounded in anything akin to objective reality).

4

Also, don't look the MSM to provide commentary on the markets that is any more intelligent than their commentary on any other subject.  You'd be better off relating celebrity news stories to the market movements, which would actually be a fun daily blog feature:

 

The market rallied strongly today on news that musician Bono was on vacation in St. Tropez with a couple of 19-year-old babes.  "When I saw that story I knew we were going to be up huge and I jumped in with both feet," said NYSE floor trader Joseph T. Finkleburger.

"Bono is starting to look like Robin Williams and he hasn't done anything worth shit for years, so if he can still score the babes, there's hope for all of us.  That's the kind of message that can turn this economy around.  I especially loaded up on Pfizer (PFE 17.82 +1.43), as they make Viagra."

Some said the rally would likely be short-lived, however.  "Bono's wife is going to find out about this and go ballistic.  That's the problem with this kind of partying, the longer-term hangover,"  said noted contrarian Wilford X. Wattleneck.

5 Dave, angling for plebian's job!

6 Heh, not at all.  First, my little piece isn't satire, it's topical humor.  Second, I'm not nearly as funny as plebian.  I almost started a blog once just to do the celeb inspired market commentary, but a one-trick-pony isn't much of a blog.

7 a one-trick-pony isn't much of a blog

Huh.  Could have fooled me.

8 Peel, I was going to make that exact same point, with those two exact sites and FAILblog.

9 Heh, great minds think alike.

10 Yeah, but those are theme blogs.  They can have as many posts as people have good photos / ideas.  They're not just a one-a-day kind of thing.