Year-End Rally Still Expected

I've noticed there is a theme to the questions being asked on CNBC lately. You might recall we went from Maria Bartiromo constantly asking guests what they would buy to finally at the November lows asking what they would sell. Now I see every guest, or practically every guest, is asked when he expects the recession to conclude.

It would seem to me that before guests are asked about the conclusion of the recession they should first be asked if they ever saw the recession coming. Because if they never saw it coming, then why would we care when they think it will be over? And if they never saw it coming it likely means those guests are permabulls and in this market we have learned "perma" anything is not a good thing to be!

Meanwhile, I also have noticed a pattern in the market for the past week. It's been so long since we've seen this pattern that I hadn't realized it: we're back to every other day. Since last Monday we have been up, down, up, down, up and down again Monday. I suppose if the pattern continues, Tuesday could be an up day.

Of course, on Tuesday we have Goldman Sachs' (GS - commentary - Cramer's Take) earnings, or lack thereof, to be announced, as well as the Federal Reserve decision on interest rates in the afternoon. One could easily cancel out the other.

Monday's action came on very light volume, which I'd put in the plus column. It also came on horrific breadth, which I'd put in the negative column. Also on the plus side was that the put/call ratio remained high, but to counter that the financials went back to acting poorly.

Monday's action didn't do much to change the fact that I simply don't have a strong view of the next few days.

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At the time of publication, Meisler had no positions in any stocks mentioned, although holdings can change at any time.

Helene Meisler writes a daily technical analysis column and TheStreet.com Top Stocks. For more information, click here. Meisler trained at several Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs and SG Cowen, and has worked with the equity trading department at Cargill. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. She appreciates your feedback; click here to send her an email.