Could the stock market have bottomed?

Tim Knight's "Slope of Hope" blog is great to learn about charts from. He is generally a bear and has done very well this year-to-date (while I am normally a bull). Anyway, today he finally acknowledged that the Russell 2000 (IWM) is trending gradually higher from the middle of last March. Love it. Proof at last that the market may have bottomed. Hope so, but time will tell.





Today's final American market numbers are significantly higher:

DJIA* 11715.18 212.67 1.85% Nasdaq* 2411.64 29.18 1.22% S&P 500 1293.12 11.46 0.89% Russell* 747.79 14.84 2.02% 10-YR Note* 3.787% -6/32 -0.17% * at close Source: Dow Jones, Reuters

Maybe it's a sign of better things ahead. The market liked the economy's higher readings today. This is from today's Wall Street Journal:

Investors' mood was brightened early by data from the Commerce Department which showed the economy grew at a 3.3% annual rate in the second quarter, better than the 1.9% rate seen in the government's initial report. Contributing to the mark-up were stronger exports, less inventory liquidation by businesses and stronger consumer spending. Second-quarter spending climbed 1.7%, up from a previously reported 1.5% increase and ahead of the first quarter's 0.9% gain.

Barack Obama's speech is at 10 p.m. Eastern this evening. Not that there is any connection to the above or anything. Can't wait to, as CNN says, "watch history unfold"!!!