After large gains on Wednesday, the markets stalled on Thursday and many began to question whether the bullish rally was going to regain its previous steam (including me). But today’s strong push higher has probably run over the few remaining bears. SPX closed up $9 at $1818, another all-time high. Every time I write about a new all-time high, I get more concerned about a correction. But shorting this market or any of the market “darlings” has been painful so far. 

RUT has traded more bearishly than SPX for several weeks. Thursday was classic example, with SPX trading flat while RUT gave back half of its gains from Wednesday. But the music changed today! RUT gained $21 to close at $1146, just one dollar below its all-time high. RUT moved higher by almost 2% whereas SPX moved up only one half of a percent. Trading volume was off the charts today with 3.2 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading. Trading volume on the NYSE was up 80% and up 67% on NASDAQ - wow! A bullish market plus options expiration conspired to stimulate a flood of trading.

Third quarter GDP was revised upward to 4.1% today and that surprise may have driven some of the bullishness. I will be interested to see if the markets can follow through next week or if we will continue to see the "on again, off again" trading of the last three days.

Enjoy your weekend. Men: the time is nearing to begin your Christmas shopping, but don't jump the gun. You still have a few days.