Recent Bears Not Buying Tuesday's Comeback

SAN FRANCISCO -- So much for the aftershock.

After one of the most orderly "panic selloffs" in recent memory yesterday, major proxies overcame their early timidity to end solidly higher today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8%, the S&P 500 gained 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite added a robust 4.8%.

Catalysts for the advance included a weaker-than-expected retail sales report, which reminded downtrodden investors that the Federal Reserve will ease -- likely by 50 basis points -- when it meets a week from today. Additionally, General Electric (GE Quote) made some positive comments and jumped 6.9%, regaining much of Monday's losses. Finally, tech bellwethers such as Cisco (CSCO Quote), Oracle (ORCL Quote), Sun Microsystems (SUNW Quote) and Juniper Networks (JNPR Quote) enjoyed big percent moves as some investors surmised they had simply become too cheap to ignore. Their gains helped the Nasdaq 100 rally 6.5%.

But, as one might guess, nothing that occurred today changed the hearts or minds of those recently bearish. ...