It’s better to have loved and lost then to have been hunted for sport by an eccentric German billionaire.

The European Central Bank is considering a major easing on the rules on the assets  it will accept from struggling lenders in return for loans that could expand by more than 10 trillion euros.

If this is true, it will mean the ECB will create a bottomless pit of cash-o-rama to backstop an economy that is falling to pieces with the grace  of a slow motion train wreck.

In other news, $JPM reports earnings today and some are looking for it to be their most profitable quarter ever. Amazing what funky and creative accounting can do.

Eddie Lampert announced that he is buying Sears $SHLD stock in his personal account from his hedge fund. Yesterday CIT cut off vendor financing to Sears, the company has recently been downgraded by all the ratings services and the company is closing stores. Lampert and Dimon are both members of the media appointed “genius club.”

The market seems to be consolidating for one last big move, at least that’s what the charts say to me. Barring an “event” (meaning something bad from Europe over the near term), I think there is still some juice in the market’s tank.

My subscribers are having a terrific month so far in January. If you would like to request performance, email me at: upsidetrader@gmail.com

Have a great weekend.

Scary words, all are desperate tools, but freakishly and weirdly good for stocks.  I don’t care if Brussels is a raging success on Friday, Europe is still doomed and is not only in a recession now, but will go into a deeper one soon.

What we are seeing here in the market has nothing to do with Europe. It has everything to do with performance chasing. The tide turned with our favorite superhero last week when The Bernanke started the ball rolling. The market is a degenerate gambler now with unlimited hordes of idle cash and time on its hand. Shorts are helpless and have left the building. They will be  back. Remember, “ours is not to reason why”. Translation? Just buy for now. There is no playbook for this insanity. The bulls will probably pull in their horns a bit before Friday rolls around though.

Good luck and don’t take any wooden euros.

We’re trading on hope more than reality here this morning as global markets are ripping higher. Maybe the news services are just testing the plumbing for a euro breakup. It does seem though that Germany and France may be getting down to the nitty gritty on some big moves to save Europe. If you trust “Merkozy” then by all means please buy everything in site with reckless abandon.

We have been to the alter of hope so many times before and this could setting up to be our nineteenth nervous breakdown.I would love markets to rally and I would love to see Santa get his groove on over the next four weeks, but one day does not a trend change make, so be careful.

The euro gapped up at 5PM last night on news from Italian paper La Stampa that the IMF was ready to inject 900B into Italy. The small fly in the ointment is that they don’t have 900B, so let’s see how this evolves. The IMF has also denied the rumor.

Black Friday evidently went well, but nearly as well as advertised. I heard the iPad sales $AAPL were up 68% per hour over this holiday weekend and the $AMZN Kindle sales were up 4X over last year.

The market is itching for a reason, any reason to trade higher. Volume will be key here and follow through will be even more important so watch that.

If you are a buy and holder then you are happy about today. If you are a swing trader that got trapped, then here is your exit. Unless of course you are a true believer.

If there is substance to this “new move” by Europe, then Santa may indeed find a rocket in his pocket over the next few weeks.

In any event, good luck this week and don’t take any wooden euros.

“When you see a fork in the road, take it”- Yogi Bera

Futures are a tad lower this morning as the globe digests the appointment of Mario Monti. I’m waiting for the one liners about “three card Monti, the full Monti or maybe Monti Hall Makes a Deal”.  Surely more fun and excitement will be in store for us, if not some outright tomfoolery and skullduggery. Still the third inning as we watch the attack of the technocrats.  Berlusconi will now be pursuing a younger more svelte country.

S&P Cash

The bulls want to see the S&P ( $SPY) close above that 200 day moving average this week. They will want to see it done on convincing volume too.

In other news, Abe Lincoln’s copper sword was stolen from his tomb and the TSA is ready to open your Christmas presents at an airport near you this holiday season..  Lady Gaga shocked her audience when she performed without her head over the weekend, Congress does this here every day, so no one was shocked.  A wave of despair has gripped our nation, but Obama insists he could do nothing to prevent the release of Adam Sandler’s “Jack & Jill.”

Greece has occupied all the print recently and I told you that Italy $EWI would take the headlines last week and it did. This week I look for Spain $EWP to hit the front page as their yields are catching some bids.

Have  great week and trust nothing.

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S&P Daily

The S&P is trying hard to retake the hill and take back that 200 day moving average (yellow line).

S&P 10 minute

Around 2PM (10 minute chart above), there was a monster spike in the S&P $SPY. It was the result of what I thought was a garbage headline out of Europe, I still think that, but the tape wants higher it seems, no matter what.

From 10,000 feet, Europe looks to be on the brink, a closer view though makes you think the bulls will take it up regardless. This market is like the poor kid in high school who constantly gets bullied, at first he falls apart from the attacks, but later he becomes numb to it, maybe even stronger as a result. Stay tuned, maybe this bullshit tape can finally get going.

Berlusconi is out…no, he’s in…he’s out…no wait he’s in. It’s only Monday morning and the bullshit is starting already.

Russia is seeking a “significant increase” in the weight of developing nations in the International Monetary Fund after pledging to contribute to the euro region’s bailout. Medvedev will meet with the IMF’s Lagarde today to discuss the Euro mess and  they will also ask for a seat the table going forward.

This is fun and I now wait for Putin to show up bare chested with a fly rod or an elephant gun at the next meeting. Who knows? Maybe he will bang out a tune or do some stand up.

China is ready with a check too, not because they are sweethearts, but because Europe is the world’s largest economy and is also China’s largest export partner. I mean who will buy their shit if Europe isn’t breathing?

So Italy $EWI is front and center this morning, Spain $EWP will probably take the front  page soon, but let’s not t forget Germany $EWG (no one is talking about Germany for heavens sake in the last couple of weeks), they are so screwed.

If you look closely, the same media folk over in Europe that are reporting on these PM resignations are the same ones reporting that Elvis was just seen on Mars eating fried twinkies. The market knows this, yet doesn’t hesitate in spinning you out of a trade that makes you feel completely stupid.

When Communism saves Socialism it’s usually time to leave the dance.

I watch with interest and amusement as it all becomes unhinged. Still the third inning.

“(It will) certainly take a decade until we are in a better position again”- Angela Merkel

Japan experienced a disastrous decade of economic stagnation and deflation from 1991 to 2001 after bubbles in its stock market and land market collapsed. There was a 60 percent plunge in equity prices between late 1989 and August 1992, accompanied by the onset of what ultimately became a 70 percent drop in land values by 2001–the Lost Decade.  It required a series of persistently wrong economic policy decisions that ignored the lessons learned in America’s Great Depression of the 1930s.  Japan’s large fiscal stimulus packages, which became legendary during the 1990s, were ineffective.

Now we have Europe.

(Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday it would take a decade before the euro zone was in a better position and there was much work left to be done to solve the bloc’s sovereign debt crisis.

Merkel said all of Europe had overspent for years but welcomed that all euro zone members had agreed to a debt brake like Germany’s.

“Almost all European countries have spent more over the years than they earned,” she said.

……and in America? Like nothing ever happened, we just keep spending. Sad.

These two crazy kids just cant keep their hands off each other.  The rumor mill is ripping right now about the potential for Moody’s to downgrade French banks this week, that will be value added as always by the rating agencies. I am sure a downgrade of France would be simultaneous if not done shortly thereafter.

Anyhow, not good for global markets no matter how you slice it. This topic is near and dear to me as I have been writing about Europe on and off (mostly on lately). I said that Europe was just in the first inning of a painful ball game a year ago when many of the pundits, high on Pollyanna Quaaludes were sprinkling happy dust and European PM’s were lying like rugs to the global community. It’s DEFCON 1 as Europe has moved to the seventh or eighth inning backed up by armless infielders.

The indices are hanging by a thread here and it won’t take much for this market to take a Nestea Plunge, it all depends on Europe and I see nothing good.

Germany

France

Spain

$EWP, $EWG, $EWP, $DAX, $SPY

So adorable, Sarkozy and Merkel look like Peter Sellers and Angela Lansbury in a late 60′s comedy whodunit. . German growth limped in at 0.1% this morning, but the consensus estimate was more like 0.5%. Germany, the engine of the Eurozone, is starting to feel the weight. Being the best house in a bad neighborhood only can last so long.

Our futures are getting clobbered and of course gold is higher on this news. Trading this market with size or conviction is still  as dangerous as juggling Faberge eggs. We are close to wiping out yesterdays gains at this point unless things start to turn.

We are far from being out of the woods as I have been saying for the last two weeks, unless your thing is trading a headline market that pushes and pulls on a day to day basis. No trend, no trade.

Careful out there.

$SPY, $EUO, $EURO,