So Does The Health Care Bill Matter.....?

The financial headlines are going to claim that passage of the health-care legislation and the end of that uncertainty is responsible for the positive market action today. It is a neat and clear cause-and-effect relationship that makes for easy headlines. Other than the action in some hospitals and a few medical-related stocks, today's market didn't have much to do with the health-care bill at all. Once it became clear the bears couldn't keep the pressure on after the open, we returned to the exact same type of action that has dominated for weeks -- highly complacent and low-volume, but steady buying. It wasn't a Street celebration of the health-care bill. Given the ineptitude of the bears, the market had no choice but to stay with this dramatic, month-long uptrend. I don't believe you will find many folks who jumped in because they viewed the health bill as a positive catalyst. What choice did they have, when the market is acting like this? Whatever the reasons, the quick resumption of buying puts us right back to where we were last Thursday: quite extended and in need of consolidation (according to some), even though there are few, if any, signs of weakness. The bears were simply run over. If they had any effect on the market, it was to provide some short-squeeze fuel.    One of these days, things will shift. For now it's all good, and there isn't a worry in sight.........