What we were hoping to see this week was some stability in the various global issues. The day started out reversing the prior day’s final half-hour selloff. The market had gotten complacent about the fact that bad news each morning saw our market open on a low. Traders were selling the midday rally to buy the open. Yesterday, we really didn’t have any good news. The Japanese PM resigned and that sparked concerns over a Japanese sovereign debt downgrade. Israel refused to allow an international review of its recent event with Palestine. BP’s latest attempt to cut the pipe hit a snag. All in all, the news was about as negative as it had been, but nothing really “new”. The Euro oscillated above and below 1.22, but stuck to a narrow range. Overall, things may not have been “better”, but weren’t really any “worse”. That’s all investors wanted was a little stability in the global scene so they could focus on the better-than-expected ISM, Pending Home Sales, and even auto sales. Next up is jobs, and expectations are running high that the number will provide a strong headline for the newspapers, even if driven by census workers. It’s all about perception. If the average person perceives the recovery is still on track, despite all of the ruckus in Europe, confidence will improve. Meanwhile, earnings season is right around the corner and domestic earnings should prove to be fairly decent for a second quarter compared to Q2 2009. It’s the focus on the domestic economy and earnings that is driving this rally.