The Day After, Whom Do We Thank for the Party?

Indications suggest "not for long" is the answer to the question on everybody's mind -- how long will it last? -- in the aftermath of Wednesday's remarkable rally.

News reports about anthrax-tainted mail at a Federal Reserve facility provided a ready excuse for major averages to rescind some of Wednesday's big gains, which many say was likely to occur regardless. Of late, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4%, the S&P 500 was off 0.8% and Nasdaq Composite was lower by 1.6%.

Some of yesterday's big gainers were spearheading today's early decline, including tech giants Cisco (CSCO Quote), Microsoft (MSFT Quote) and Brocade (BRCD Quote). ...