Energy and materials? Caterpillar (CAT)? What the heck? How can these be rallying so hard? Perhaps because they were such great shorts last week.

We saw huge put-buying in the Oil Service HOLDRs (OIH) and the banks.

Remember that many of them had broken down to the levels where their secondaries had been put on or below them, with BB&T (BBT) and Wells Fargo (WFC) hanging by a thread and PNC (PNC) really breaking down. Not only that, we had Capital One (COF) getting crushed.

Remember that many of them had broken down to the levels where their secondaries had been put on or below them, with BB&T (BBT) and Wells Fargo (WFC) hanging by a thread and PNC (PNC) really breaking down. Not only that, we had Capital One (COF) getting crushed.

Remember that many of them had broken down to the levels where their secondaries had been put on or below them, with BB&T (BBT) and Wells Fargo (WFC) hanging by a thread and PNC (PNC) really breaking down. Not only that, we had Capital One (COF) getting crushed.

Remember that many of them had broken down to the levels where their secondaries had been put on or below them, with BB&T (BBT) and Wells Fargo (WFC) hanging by a thread and PNC (PNC) really breaking down. Not only that, we had Capital One (COF) getting crushed.

We got an interview with Ken Chenault from American Express (AMX) where he said simply things aren't getting any better. He would not even endorse the "less bad" thesis

And the presumption going into earnings was that they would be disastrous -- everything from the big guys like Intel (INTC) to little guys like Bemis (BMS) and W.W. Grainger (GWW) to cite two stocks that were better than expected.