Markups May Be Illegal, but They Still Go On

Editor's note: Bill Fleckenstein's column runs exclusively on RealMoney.com; this is a special free look at his column. For a free trial subscription to RealMoney.com, click here.

Index	Close	Change
Dow	10,403.94	-22.97
S&P 500	1147.39	+2.81
Nasdaq Composite	1845.36	+18.61
Nasdaq 100	1452.81	+16.30
Russell 2000	506.46	+0.61
Semiconductor Index (SOX)	595.25	+13.70
Bank Index	897.72	-7.66
Amex Gold Bugs Index	98.80	-1.08
Dow Transports	2917.96	+11.29
Dow Utilities	305.73	+0.41
NYSE advance-decline	+331	-748
Nikkei 225	11,333.11	+9.43
10-year Treasury Bond	5.40%	+0.06

Some Assembly Required: I had hoped to make today's Rap rather brief, but so many things have transpired that it's important to cover them all, with the exception of the overnight markets, which I won't even bother with. In order to keep this from running on forever, I might just restrict my rant and let readers take the three-day weekend to research some of this stuff themselves. That said, I will be appearing this Saturday, March 30, on Fox TV's "Bulls & Bears" show at 10 a.m. EST.

Bulls Wolf Down Big Macro: Turning to the macro data, this morning's fourth-quarter GDP numbers were better than expected, ditto the Chicago purchasing managers and Michigan consumer sentiment numbers. That, combined with some hype out of Morris Chang from Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM Quote), had the tape rocking and rolling in the early going. (More about Mr. Chang later.) ...