Taskmaster Ready to Run Through Pamplona?

Timing is Everything

SAN FRANCISCO -- Sharp-eyed readers may have caught an allusion to my growing bullishness and a promise to follow up with more Tuesday morning. But departing Los Angeles this morning, I was thinking of ways to maybe weasel out of that promise because major averages were careening lower again and near intraday lows.

But just about the time we took off, so, too, did the major averages. Once as low as 9106.54, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed off a relatively minor 1% at 9389.58, while the S&P 500 closed down 0.4% at 1117.58 vs. its nadir of 1081.25. The Nasdaq Composite finished up 3.7% to 1897.70 after trading as low as 1794.21.

Whatever happened while we were in the air, I can now at least make the bullish case without it looking totally kooky. ...