Bernanke Burns the Bulls

As the rest of the world reveled Monday in the rites of spring, the U.S. markets herked and jerked, weighing the Fed's commitment to vigilance on the back of more strong economic data -- and some backtracking by Ben Bernanke.

The dollar and U.S. Treasury bonds sold off through most of the day, while U.S. stocks and commodities began a spin up the maypole. But stocks turned violently lower on the words of CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, who said Bernanke, the Fed chairman, mentioned to her this weekend that he's unhappy with his growing reputation as a "dove."

The CNBC personality reported that the Fed chief said markets were "wrong" to react to his congressional testimony last Thursday as necessarily telegraphing a pause in June. She reported that Bernanke said it is "worrisome" that people don't see him as an "aggressive inflation fighter," and claimed that his comments had been designed to create flexibility -- not cement faith in the one-and-done scenario. ...