I spent Tuesday nursing the flu, tuned to Samuel Alito’s confirmation hearing on C-Span. The tone of the proceedings was surprisingly civil, perhaps because going on the attack against the mild-mannered judge would have been like trying to savage Mr. Peepers. Things are bound to turn ugly, or at least uglier, when partisan debate begins today, but it’s very difficult to imagine the Democrats will be able to derail Alito’s confirmation. Yesterday he appeared to have all the answers, notwithstanding the fact that many of the questions were curve balls designed to challenge his recollection of events and decisions that played out decades ago. It was like watching a Zen master play Pac-Man all day without a foul. Does he ever miss?

A day away from my charts seems not to have cost me much. The Dow was off a whopping 32 cents after being down nearly 60 points earlier in the day. It was a pretty typical session, with stocks turning buoyant after sellers ran out of steam in the first hour or so. If the pattern of the last umpteen months holds, the obligatory short-squeeze will take hold today or tomorrow, persisting into Friday. It seems clear that other People’s Money is driving the market these days, as fearless and unstoppable at the start of the New Year as a rutting moose.