Despite a continuous diatribe by soothsayers warning that the U.S. markets have run too far, too fast, the stock market continues to climb higher. Every dip is met by buyers eager to own stocks and it looks increasingly likely the next stop on the S& P 500 Index is 1,200.

“I just don’t trust the market, not after what happened to us in ’08-’09,” confessed a Monterey couple, who lost a bundle in the downturn.

Investors are already jockeying for positions, ahead of this weekend’s congressional vote on the Obama Administration’s health care bill. It didn’t help that Friday was also a Quadruple Witching Day when four different futures and options contracts expire. These factors caused what had been a calm, practically sleepy week in the markets to end with [...]

You can’t open a newspaper or watch television this week without hearing something about the coming legislative battle to reform our financial system. If you didn’t know the name of the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee before now, you will certainly get to know Christopher Dodd hence forward.

It was a quiet week in the markets. All three averages barely budged on a daily basis although the bias was definitely upward. Underlying this becalmed action, however, individual stocks had some eye-popping moves to the plus side.

This week the stock market made it clear that the path of least resistance is higher. All three averages are now once again sporting gains for 2010 and it looks like we are on target to at least challenge the year’s highs from here.

Just like its predecessor, ‘Cash for Clunkers’, the recently announced $6 billion government program (officially called HOMESTAR) gives us working class people a tax break, energy savings and may also put a few good men and women back to work. What’s not to love about that?

Hallelujah! It’s been a long time coming but finally, someone, someplace looks willing to end one of the worst scams in financial history.