Most years, at about this time, investors begin to anticipate a so-called “Christmas Rally”. So far investors have received nothing but coal in their stockings. I counsel patience. Most investors appear to be jumping the gun.

How many times in the past year have we been faced with binary events that were either “do or die” moments for the markets? Some turned out to be “dos” but others definitely failed to meet investors’ expectations. Yet, armageddon did not occur.

It was the week that was. The stock market regained practically all of its losses of the last three weeks and then some. If you were not already invested, you missed the move. But don’t fret, I think there is more upside in the weeks ahead.

Global Investors are convinced that unless something changes and soon, the Euro and the nations that use it are toast. They are exerting as much selling pressure as possible on worldwide markets to force those changes.  So far all it has done is make us all poorer.

All eyes are on the European Central Bank. The financial risk in Europe has escalated to a point where investors see no way out unless the ECB comes to the rescue. The problem is that the bank’s charter makes that difficult.

 So here we are again. Another G-20 Summit, Greece on center stage, the Euro trading like a seismograph and you, my dear reader, simply trying to cope.

After this week’s stupendous rally, the logical question to ask is what happens next? Do stocks continue to move higher? Is it time to take profits? How do you navigate the future when there are still so many unknowns ahead of us?

Forget about earnings. Forget about the economy. None of it matters. Investors are totally mesmerized by every twist and turn in the on-going soap opera playing out in Europe.

My hunch paid off. Investors continued to buy stocks this week hoping that Europe will be able to sort out its financial crisis within the next few weeks. Right now, the markets are in need of a few days of consolidation before breaking higher.

One could tend to dismiss this week’s market move as just another short covering rally triggered by unsubstantiated rumors from Europe. Friday’s sell-off in the face of fairly good unemployment data bolsters that premise. So why do I feel we have further to go on the upside?