State of the market

Did you see the financial markets yesterday? They opened up almost 100 points down, but closed up 150 points. The reason that this is noteworthy is that the 250 point rise from bottom was likely attributable to the auto makers saying that their results were bad, but improving. For a change the market was responding to business news and not “bailout news,” or “economic news.” Yes, I know that the auto manufacturer news could be considered as an insight into the state of the economy. However, investors were buying not because some esoteric economic number like the “producer price index” was improving, but because actual businesses, selling actual things were doing well. What this means is that the obsession folks have had with the actions of the Federal Government and the gyrations of the economy is abating. This is a good thing.