The market has closed up today (OK, slightly up, but better than 100 points down). The DOW closed at 10060 (20 points up), and the S&P closed up by 3.5 points at 1055.

Now the market was down the whole day, but something happened at 2:30 PM (by the way, 2:30 PM is really a magical time in the stock market, remember this when you look at any chart of a heavily traded stock) where the market started changing direction, and going into the green. Even BAC, which was going down for just over a couple of weeks now, got out of the red, and went up 2 cents, not too much, but very symbolic.

Some people claimed that the market went up because all of a sudden, some investors realized that the drop was overdone, and that they suddenly saw a lot of bargains in the market and started buying. But why now?

In all fairness, I find this extremely odd, especially with the job numbers coming tomorrow at 8:30 AM, even before the market opens, which means that whoever bought today by the end of the day will be at the mercy of the job report tomorrow. The high volume after 2:30 PM suggests that major stock brokerage firms actually bought stocks, and started trusting the market, less than 24 hours before the release of a job report that may be very well horrible. These brokerage firms are not stupid and are there to make money, which leads to think:

1. Major investors know something about the job report tomorrow, and they know that it’s not as awful as many think. OR
2. There is a consensus among major investors that the DOW should go up regardless of the job report. OR
3. Major investors have read and believed this article, but not this one. OR
4. Maybe someone just said the magic word.

All the stocks, especially financials, were already corrected back in 2009 (C is trading at less than 20% its 2008 average), this is a known fact. I do find it weird that suddenly the market feels “Hey, these stocks are real bargains! I’m gonna buy me some”.

Anyway, I believe that whatever the job numbers are tomorrow, the market is going up. Hope is a good word!

Let’s see!