Fannie and Freddie: Now Too Big to Regulate

Index	Close	Change
Dow	9216.79	+146.58
S&P 500	1004.50	+18.80
Nasdaq Composite	1721.25	+57.79
Nasdaq 100	1282.31	+50.97
Russell 2000	464.89	+8.54
Semiconductor Index (SOX)	395.57	+26.60
Bank Index	884.41	+16.67
Amex Gold Bugs Index	153.96	-0.69
Dow Transports	2458.13	+42.82
Dow Utilities	249.50	-0.07
NYSE advance-decline	+1,186	+1,852
Nikkei 225	9795.16	+247.43
10-year Treasury Bond	3.71%	+0.052

Editor's note: This column, which reflects market activity from the day before, originally appeared July 7 on RealMoney.com. To sign up for RealMoney, where you can read Bill Fleckenstein's commentary every day, please click here for a free trial.

Overnight, stock markets around the world blasted off by 2% to 3%, a theme that we ran with here this morning. After bolting out of the starting gate, the S&P and the Dow were up 2%, and the Nasdaq was up about 3% two hours into the morning. Suffice to say, the usual speculative leaders were going nuts, with the SOX up 6%, the bank stock index up a couple, biotech and Internet stocks on fire, and housing stocks firm as well.

Torrid Love Letters: B-U-Y: After the early-morning surge, we basically spent the rest of the day flopping and chopping near the highs, which is where we closed. Having said that about the major indices, a quick look at the box scores shows that the areas of speculation heated up all day, with the SOX leading the charge, up a modest 8%. Basically, it was a day of white-hot speculation, wire to wire. The only odd thing worth noting is the uptick in some of the volatility indices.

Away from stocks, the dollar was stronger. Fixed income was lower. The metals were mixed, with gold down 0.5% and silver up 1%.

Straining for a Spending Uptick: Turning to the news, three stories on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal offer a perfect microcosm for the current environment. Tech bulls who favor arm-waving over corroborating data will be heartened to read "Tech Supplier Senses [my emphasis] Businesses May Be Nearing a Spending Uptick." One might expect such a prominently placed story to back its argument with some facts, but because they do not exist, the story settles for something a bit less rigorous. To wit, Ted Warner, president of Connecting Point (which does a whopping $5 million in revenues) tells writer Grep Ip that "his salesmen are getting their calls returned more promptly." That's, in essence, the crux of the things-are-getting-better argument.