Big day for stocks

The Dow was up 284 points, to close at 10,259. As to why it gained so much, well, the market stories will have all kinds of cockamamie explanations -- stuff like how China says it isn't planning to sell its European bond holdings or Spain approving additional budget cuts. As has been pointed out many times, middling news events usually don't play much of a role in the decision to buy or sell. Not to bust anybody's bubble, but the computers that make much of the deciding these days don't pay any attention to the Bloomberg wire. This has become a professional's market, which means that trading a particular stock at a particular time is based on all kinds of factors other than that particular stock. From AP:

Some of the climb could be tied to what's called "short-covering." That occurs when traders are forced to buy stock after having earlier sold borrowed shares in a bet that the market would fall. Though it's difficult to determine how much lift it might be giving stocks, the rush to cover misplaced bets can add to a rally.

From Michael Kahn at Barron's:

Is this a good buying opportunity? If you are a trader with a short-term bent, perhaps. If you are looking for a good place to jump back into the market for the long haul, this is not it.