Chris Weber: don’t bet your retirement on stocks right now DailyWealth

Porter Stansberry explains the forces behind the current rally The Daily Crux

America is running out of rope The Market Ticker

The world financial system’s Achilles’ heel The Daily Reckoning

Roubini on a U shaped recovery Naked Capitalism

Larry Flynt calls for a national strike The Huffington Post

Look for an X shaped recovery Real Clear Markets

The risk of double dip recession rising Financial Times

What the stress tests didn’t predict NYT

A 4-day rally…  High Yield demand continues…  Home Prices slow to recover…  Paulson comes out from under the bus…

“Stocks are clearly having trouble extending their gains,” reports today’s Wall Street Journal. And that a number of key market health indicators are flashing red right now.  When were these indicators flashing green? We don’t recall.

Paulson heads back to congress…  BOJ cuts rates to below the US…  China to continue increasing the value of the Renminbi… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

U.S. stocks soar!  Currencies rally!  Consumer Confidence at an all-time low!  Getting off the bench! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Gold declined from the far East through the mid-point of London trading on Friday, bottoming at $860, but caught a spark there and pushed slowly higher for the rest of the day, finishing at $870.80/oz., up $2.70. For the week, gold lost 3.5%.

The short sellers appear to be dwindling. This morning the Financial Times reports that global stock markets continued to rally.

The rally comes despite heavy writedowns from Swiss banking giant UBS.

The uncertainty about the markets’ direction reflected the fact that stocks rose after another round of bank writedowns and capital-raisings – developments that might have been expected to send prices lower.

Mr Market kicked off the second quarter with a rally, extending gains into a second day. The upswing comes after heavy writedowns by Swiss bank UBS and data showing confidence among manufacturers at a four-year low.

Read on at Dow Jones MarketWatch.

“No matter what you think, now is the time to buy,” says value investor Chris Mayer.