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How was your weekend? We're back for another fun filled week of market activity and analysis. I don't know about you, but the summer continues here in the Southland. It's freaking hot. The markets aren't so hot today though. However, we may very well be in the process of putting in another tradable short-term bottom in the major indexes as I type. I'll get to that in a bit.

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Good Friday to you. Although the media is attributing today's market's strength to Spain's reform measures as they prepare for the ever popular bailout package, the reality is today marks a 'quadruple witching' event, with quarterly settlements and expiration of four different types of September equity futures and options contracts. That's pretty much the main reason why volatility has picked up across the major indexes over the last few days. The end result however still isn't much change since Bernanke threw his last lifeline out there last week. We'll see where things close at the end of the day.

I will note the NASDAQ Composite technically established a new 52 week high today. When I say technically, I don't mean charting analysis, I simply mean it created a new high by literally a point or two. It's hardly a breakout while the other three major indexes, the DOW, NDX and S&P, just continue to grind in a very tight range. I suspect this market is going to start making its bet on third quarter earnings soon by either moving higher from current levels or moving lower. From a charting perspective, we'll reiterate everything still appears bullish on a near-term basis. Weekly and monthly charts are still bullishly intact and the daily chart still hasn't provided any clues of a downturn in the days or weeks ahead.

Yesterday ended up proving our recent analysis of playing contrarian is still the preferred strategy for short-term trading. Once the indexes took out their short-term support levels on the hourly charts, they all moved back up in tandem with the NASDAQ leading today. Our stance of buying the weakness and selling the highs continues to prove profitable.

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Hope you had a nice weekend. We're back after it today and there's plenty to discuss after Bernanke lit a fire late last week that will likely take quite some time to determine if it was the right thing to do for the long-term health of our economy or not. As Greenspan put it, are we just kicking the can down the road knowing we'll have to deal with it at some point? Or, have Bernanke's policies been a necessary evil based on what could have happened should the Government had done nothing? This is a huge debate that appears to have literally divided this country.

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Before we get into today's edition, we owe Ben Bernanke an apology. We've continued to question and criticize his monetary policies, yet we're absolutely ecstatic when the markets perceive his actions in a way that puts profits in our pockets. Never look a gift horse in the mouth, right? We're guilty as charged. In his defense, he's got one tough job and I for one couldn't fathom the constant scrutiny he's under at every turn. Regardless of whether or not you or I agree with his economic philosophies, you've got to admit (after yesterday's announcement), this guy has some serious convictions for doing what he believes is right toward stimulating job growth and ensuring borrowing remains on the cheap.