After The Surge, A Day Of Rest

I suspect that after yesterday's big surge, the markets will likely rest today. Volume expanded noticeably during yesterday's rally, an aspect of accumulation that has been missing from previous rallies lately.

Today, we got some more M&A news in that Energizer (ENR) is bidding $1.2 billion for Playtex (PYX). Also, GE reported solid earnings and upped its buyback program to $14 billion. The news pushed its stock to a new 5-year high.

This buyback announcement, coulped with JNJ's and COP's before it, amount to many more billions of dollars than the subprime downgrades we have been hearing about. Just some figures to keep in mind in order to put things in perspective.

Asian markets followed our lead and surged overnight. Hong Kong made new record highs, gaining +1.27%, while South Korea soared +2.8%.

Bond yields are up a bit this morning, with the 10-year at 5.11%. Oil is also up again, trading near $73.40. At some point, these could be small headwinds, but yesterday they were of little consequence to the bears that were covering their shorts.

long GE in client accounts