Mad Dogs And Englishmen

The saying goes when it's noon and the sun is high, there are only mad dogs and Englishmen outside.  So when it's 97° here in the desert and just after 1:00pm when the markets close, the best thing to do is relax for a bit, read, take a short nap, then do errands, shop, explore.  Yesterday I did all of that.

The only madness I saw was at the mall.

I like color as much as anyone. Flowery Liberty ties, got 'em. Lily Pulitzer's cheery go-to-hell pants, wish I had 'em (Dad has them). Cherished Lacoste grand patron shirts.  Funky grosgrain belts.  But I've never wanted simply to throw up from having so much color rammed down my throat. Until yesterday.

Combine all this over-the-top, desperate onslaught of forced optimism with Apple mania and IPO fever and anything to do with Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg's hoodie and the Dow is either going to 25,000 or 2,500.  We're either going to explode in hyperinflation or crumble.

I'm not caving in.  There won't be hyperinflation until after we crumble.  But the crumble part could still take a while.  Or not.

Unless the S&P can get up off of the mat, some very bad technical damage will occur.  Today it needs to reclaim 1383, the 38% retracement.  It was looking good on the futures.  Now it isn't.

1357.38 is the next big level if the S&P can't rally.  It got a reprieve yesterday.  Meanwhile the clock is ticking.  And the madness is everywhere.