<i>So you'll see on Marketwatch, Y! Finance, Motley Fool and others about how the president's comments caused the market to drop. This is rubbish.</i><p>No, this is rubbish.  When the government seeks to regulate huge profit-makers at banks, it's completely rational for those banks' values to fall.  This is the consensus view of bullish and bearish commentators alike, and I have no idea why anyone would disagree.  The blogger points out that commodities fell harder.  That and a nickel and a time machine will get you a cup of coffee.<p><i>Short term noise in the market happens.</i><p>A five percent haircut is not "noise".  <a href="http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&#38;chdd=1&#38;chds=1&#38;chdv=1&#38;chvs=maximized&#38;chdeh=0&#38;chdet=1264194000000&#38;chddm=1955&#38;chls=IntervalBasedLine&#38;q=NYSE:JPM&#38;ntsp=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&#38;chdd=1&#38;chds=1&...</a><p><i>And those pundits who thought there was some correlation between politics and markets disappeared.</i><p>No they didn't, and the rally has been extremely political.  I hate linking this over and over, but it needs to be understood.  There is a near-perfect inverse correlation between the value of the dollar and the market:<p><a href="http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&#38;chdd=1&#38;chds=1&#38;chdv=1&#38;chvs=maximized&#38;chdeh=0&#38;chdet=1264183560000&#38;chddm=101752&#38;chls=IntervalBasedLine&#38;cmpto=NYSE:UUP&#38;cmptdms=0&#38;q=NYSE:SPY&#38;ntsp=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&#38;chdd=1&#38;chds=1&...</a><p>You can creepily see this happening on a tick-by-tick basis.  I don't know why this is so perfect, but I suspect it almost has to be algos doing it.  This is the kind of thing that the government (may) start regulating.<p><a href="http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&#38;chdd=1&#38;chds=1&#38;chdv=1&#38;chvs=maximized&#38;chdeh=0&#38;chdet=1264194000000&#38;chddm=391&#38;chls=IntervalBasedLine&#38;cmpto=NYSE:UUP&#38;cmptdms=0&#38;q=NYSE:SPY&#38;ntsp=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&#38;chdd=1&#38;chds=1&...</a>  [&#60;-- jan 22 2010]<p>This is not historical:<p><a href="http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&#38;chdd=1&#38;chds=1&#38;chdv=1&#38;chvs=maximized&#38;chdeh=0&#38;chdet=1204923600000&#38;chddm=100238&#38;chls=IntervalBasedLine&#38;cmpto=NYSE:UUP&#38;cmptdms=0&#38;q=NYSE:SPY&#38;ntsp=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&#38;chdd=1&#38;chds=1&...</a>