Emerging Concern, Shiny Apple

"The adjustment in the markets for the drop in commodities prices will entail some pain and market instability," writes Tony Crescenzi, chief fixed-income strategist at Miller Tabak, and contributor to RealMoney.com.

While a correction in U.S. stocks may be at hand, it is unlikely going to be because a hard landing for the economy is suddenly approaching, or because liquidity that fueled risk appetite suddenly disappeared. If these scenarios were true, Crescenzi notes, risk premiums on corporate bonds, inflation expectations implied by inflation-protected Treasuries, and other liquidity-sensitive assets would reveal more instability. So far they do not.

Also, recent strong economic data pointing to healthy consumption, employment and a possible trough in the housing market contradict worries that the global economy is headed to the abyss. Lastly, the rally in tech stocks suggests that an economic plunge would be the wrong read on commodity and emerging-market volatility.

To wit, Apple's MacWorld debut of its sleek (and expensive) iPhone -- its shares soared 8.3%, providing a boost to major averages, which spent another day fluctuating between red and green before ending mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.06% at 12,416.60, while the S&P 500 slid 0.05% to close at 1412.11; the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.23% to close at 2443.83.

Technology is the theme of the year so far, as investors bet that companies with large pools of cash will finally start to upgrade their systems, particularly as Microsoft's (MSFT Quote) new Window's operating system, Vista, is now on the market. A growth-dependent sector like technology wouldn't be in the limelight if investors or companies were really all that worried about the global economy.