Buyers tipped their hand early yesterday when homebuilders and bank stocks refused to fall on an otherwise weak opening. In fact, two of our faves, Beazer and D.R. Horton, were actually showing gains with the Dow Industrials off nearly 30 points in the early going. We’ve always paid close attention to Citi in particular, since, as far as I’m, concerned, it’s a perfect proxy for a U.S. economy that remains buoyant because it is tethered to a hot-air balloon. And so the economy shall likely remain, at least until those who borrow short to lend long get in a serious bind, as they someday will.

Meanwhile, we shouldn’t be too surprised to see the stock market shrugging off yet another Category 4-5 hurricane, not with crude down a whopping $1.16 per barrel. Perhaps investors’ ebullience can be attributed to the re-appearance of sub-$3.00 prices on gas-station marquees? Or maybe it’s the “disaster-is-good-for-business” thing getting second wind now that Rita is threatening to make landfall?

More likely is that buyers simply decided to support the market at a price level that in retrospect could not seem more obvious. Check out the chart above and you’ll see that the DJIA held just a fraction of a point above the August low. Almost makes you wonder how a trader could have avoided making money yesterday. Will anything that obvious work a second time? I wouldn't count on it.