Is it a bull-market rally or a bear-market fake? It came right down to the wire, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day Friday with its first four-day rally since November, ending the week with a gain of 9.0%.

If you’ve been following this column over the last month, you’ve likely made some money by shorting the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 

Is it just me, or does it seem like there isn’t fear out there? I thought at first that I was just disconnected from what’s happening here in my gorgeous Delray Beach office. Maybe that fact that I’m brewing my own coffee in my own home that isn’t “upside down” on mortgage repayments is skewing my version of reality.

AIG to Post Biggest Loss in U.S. History; Stocks Fall to a 12-year Low; Honda to Post First Quarterly Loss in 15 Years; Toyota Lowers Production Target

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if business conditions are deteriorating, then the economy must be weakening.

Pending home sales rose 6.3 pct in December… Merck gains after beating expectations… SanDisk sheds 23 pct, limits Nasdaq gains… Dow up 0.6 pct, S&P up 0.5 pct, Nasdaq 0.2 pct…

It’s a widely known that dogs have the capability to sense fear. In that regard, I consider myself a Pit Bull. I can sense fear in the market from thousands of miles away.

With unemployment soaring, consumer confidence plunging, and gross domestic product shrinking, there aren’t many indications that the market will rebound any time soon. But there is one.

With over a trillion dollars in bank losses and foreclosures, bankruptcies, and unemployment all ticking higher by the day, you can be sure that the stock market should head down… over the long-term. But over the short-term, anything can happen…

As expected, U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers slashed a benchmark interest rate yesterday (Tuesday). But they cut it by a bigger-than-expected amount, and did so in an unconventional manner.