Positive signs appearing all around
As the market shows resilience, researchers are seeing upside and spreading the word.
What a terrific test of the bulls. They survived a French downgrade. They survived a hideous loss and scandal at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). They triumphed over an amazingly weak quarter at Best Buy (BBBY). And best of all, they beat back a huge, futures-led decline after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the obvious, that he couldn't revive an economy that drives over a fiscal cliff.
How were we able to rally so effectively? Simple: First, the potential cease-fire in the Middle East removed an oil overhang that can always kill any rally in its tracks. Second, we are now getting a picture of a U.S. economy that's stronger -- not weaker -- than expected, largely because of the resurgent housing market.
Further, we are actually getting a very interesting research moment. Every morning, I put together the relevant stories I want to cover. That includes a roundup of the important research notes.
Ever since this decline accelerated last week, the bulk of the analyst commentary has become positive, not negative. It is almost as if there is a pact among the analysts to stop bashing stocks and start looking at them through a more positive prism. It's a brand-new phenomenon, and I think it is really helping the market.
That, plus the recognition of China as a positive force of good, not a negative force of bad, something that Doug Kass believes in too.
When the bulls in research come out en masse, they can stem declines on their own. My question is, what happens if we get some genuinely good news about the cliff, or Europe or earnings, unmitigated terrific news? I think we'd go much higher.

Jim Cramer is a co-founder of TheStreet and contributes daily market commentary to the financial news network's sites. Follow his trades for Action Alerts PLUS, which Cramer co-manages as a charitable trust has no positions in the stocks mentioned.
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Natural Blonde: You're reasonably new here. Most of the posters come here to whine because their personal situations aren't what they feel they should be. Perhaps because they're busy posting...
Any positive information is interpretted as "Obama controlling the media" or "cooking the books" even when it's private entities doing the reporting or the same methodology by the same people that have been releaseing numbers for years.
Why are these posts so bearish?Yesterday we found how much the housing market
has tiurned, corporate profits are up 78% in 46 months, job growth is up for 32
straight months and companies are sitting on a record amount of cash.Don`t be
surprised if the market doesn`t rally big time when the fiscal cliff is fixed.Enjoy the
ride.
Okay DLH, I finally figure out who BoBo was... I need a game card..
Tumbles/Ceo, you're right about the addiction to the Doom&Gloom; Some will never come out and walk in the Sunshine....They prefer rain, even when it's not needed.......So they can whine and eat cheese.
That's why Americans are Obese.
Volcker...The smarter "deadline setters", have a 10% plus or minus window....
Pretty much why DLs don't mean shidt or are meant to be broken..Wife used them all the time with employees....The Earth never imploded did it....Well not yet anyway ??
Both sides get exactly what they wanted when we go over the fiscal cliff. Spending cuts and revenue enhancement to help balance the budget
Tumbles: The debt ceiling deadline wasn't a complete disaster because we raised it. All we got from it was a downgrade as a "timeout" for congress pushing everything to the brink before coming to resolution.
Y2K did cause some issues, just the doomday scenario people who didn't understand computersna machines thought it would cause. In no small part this is because there was a lot of preparation.
So yes.. if we prepare for and minimize the impact of an impending event as a deadline, or meet the obligations required by the deadline there isn't a disaster.
The Supreme court ruling on Obamacare wasn't really a deadline, there was nothing really time-sensitive about it. It was an event, one that basically killed the potential opposition. It left the only way to undo as congressional action which would require passing over a veto.
I remember rush rush rush to meet arbitrary deadlines in the Naval shipyard where I worked in order to get a ship out on time. They forced everybody to work overtime, and when the deadline wasn't met anyway they merely changed it --- and there were no dire consequences whatsoever as a result . I learned and never got in a hurry again while working there to meet some deadline. If they forced me to work overtime, I just became passive aggressive
Where do you go once you've screwed the whole world? Instead of a rally on Wall Street, how about tanks and armed forces.
BoBo........ I don't see raising taxes either by going over the cliff or by making a compromise for not going over the cliff as being "unmitigated terrific news" in any circle with a lot of money to drop on stocks........... Who are you cheerleading for??
Let's see ........ I'm going to be run over by an 18 Wheeler instead of a train....... WOW....
"unmitigated terrific news"
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