Anthropomorphizing the market

This shapes up to be a big day on Wall Street, with the Dow up 169 points with just a minute or so to go. Why? There is no real reason - just various elements, most of them out of sight, have created buying opportunities. But that's not the way it'll be explained in the stock stories. The explanation getting the most mileage today is Greece - first traders were worried, then they weren't. Felix Salmon says it's yet another reason why market reporting should be ignored.

Are markets worried about Greece? Are they rallying as their worries about Greece ease? The answer is that anthropomorphizing markets in this way is supremely unhelpful. It's just not often as obviously unhelpful as it was today.

Some singular events do stir wholesale buying and selling. But it's not the norm. The market is not a monolith, and as with the economy, the numbers often defy explanations.