Why is the stock market moving up?

I expect retail sales for holidays this year to be way up despite overall economic picture. Just a guess

I've been questioning this for months. I know everything was gaining on expectations of QE3 but damn. We are around the highs prior to the crash which is absurd to me. I personally think we are in for a rude awakening in the future. Just speculation though no facts.

Edit: The powers that be have pretty much played the game perfect though. How long did the Fed continually say that another round of QE was a real option? 8-12 months? Every meeting they had for almost a year would mirror the meeting before it. They would say the economy is improving but quick enough. If this trend continues we are prepared to introduce another round of QE. That gave investors confidence. Throw in some questionable unemployment numbers and the retail investors that only read the headlines of the newspapers think that everything is back to normal...

I have a question though. Could issues overseas be a factor in this? Meaning many overseas markets are in limbo and investors are looking to reduce risk. Could our initial surge of 10-15% be an event people are labeling as a recovery and we have new foreign money investing in US equities to hide from the uncertainty overseas? If so when other markets begin to recover we could again have a massive correction. This is purely what if and just something to think about.

Here are my thoughts. Disclaimer: keep in mind I know investing about as well as a typical welder knows LSU football.

A lot of analysts are saying that fear, uncertainty, and the re-election of the current administration/congress are already factored into current prices.

Besides this, I think alot of companies have lower revenue but also have lower costs due to trimming back on expenses that typically come with a growth strategy.

With the fact that the Fed has pledged to keep rates 0% till 2015, alot of investors are betting that they can beat the borrowing rate.

Lastly, it is possible that a lot of investors feel that the fiscal cliff will eventually be solved, even at the 11th hr, and that the market won't get quite as spooked by delays and tug-of-war that will occur.

Edited for punctuation/spelling

It's a strange, strange time we live in, that is for sure.

Election Outcome is the only thing I can think of.

Looks like the PPT has now been re-tasked as the MUT (Market Upswing).

Earnings might not be as bad as expected

Many good ideas in this thread.

All of them could be correct and then again, none of them may be correct. I sure can't figure it out.

The only other time I've seen the market behave like this in my investing career the chairman of the Federal Reserve gave a speech and referred to the market as having "irrational exuberance."

To the poster who said perhaps the market is reacting to the upcoming presidential election, I've thought about that myself. It seems the market has elevated since the first presidential debate and the subsequent polls showing a revived Romney campaign. If that's it, we will know three weeks from today.

Thanks to everyone for your responses.

quote:

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Why is the stock market moving up?
Serious question: What am I missing?

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If a guy like you doesn't know the answer to this...I am royally fricked.

I think we are on an obvious bubble. With the corp profit margins being pretty high in past months that explained the good earnings forcasts in the past but that is not true anymore maybe we are about to hit a plateau before the fall??

Sorta feels like the moment the coyote runs off the cliff.