It takes more than two to make a trend.  JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) yesterday (Thursday) became the second major U.S. investment bank – following Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) – to this week report windfall profits for the second-quarter. That’s helped fuel a four-day advance in U.S. stocks that’s seen the Dow Jones Industrial Average surge 7%.

The feud between authorities in China and Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) escalated Wednesday night when Chinese users were blocked from Google’s global Web site for a period of at least two hours.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) raised its growth outlook for industrialized countries for the first time in two years and said the United States would experience a quicker recovery than Europe.

The World Bank yesterday (Monday) lowered its growth forecast for the global economy and warned about a long and painful recovery in developed economies, underscoring the recent supposition by many analysts that a three-month rally in U.S. stocks has been overdone.

Two days of talks between U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Chinese officials culminated yesterday (Tuesday) with both parties reaffirming their confidence in the value of the dollar, and the viability of U.S. debt.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will likely maintain its crude oil production quotas at its meeting in Vienna, Austria today, Thursday.

Is the hoped-for economic rebound merely a mirage? And if it is, how should you play it? For the past few months, optimistic analysts and investors have been scouring the global economy for so-called “green shoots” – a new financial buzzword that refers to any early indicators of a financial recovery.