Henry Paulson

Another Sweetheart Session?

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Stocks turned a third straight sweetheart session yesterday, as the bulls appeared to be feeling the love in front of Valentine’s Day from a better-than expected report on Retail Sales. Although there was some negative news and stocks once again finished off their highs on declining volume, the bulls come into today feeling pretty good about themselves for a change.

The primary catalysts for Wednesday’s gain of 179 points were a solid earnings report from tech bellwether, Applied Materials (AMAT) and word from the Commerce Department that contradicted the reports that the American consumer is on life support.

With Retail Sales coming in with a gain of +0.3% in January, which was well above the estimates for a reading of between unchanged and a drop of -0.4%, the argument ...