If you view virtually every rally as driven by short-covering, the market becomes transparent and comprehensible.  Right now, for instance.  Mere bullish buying could never have pushed the futures above the summer highs noted here earlier simply because there is no bullish buying going on, save by Kudlow.  But because every day ends with a flurry of short covering, it was only a matter of time before DaBoyz generated enough of it to carry into the night session.  That’s where things stand at the moment, shortly before midnight: The futures are trading at 1127.00, a tick off the night-time high, having surpassed two of three important summer peaks on zero volume and unobserved by all but a relative handful of traders. The final peak I’d mentioned at 1133.50 remains to be conquered, but bears shouldn’t get their hopes too high that it will survive.  At some point in the near future, this rally will be cited by Obamuck and the pundits as evidence that the economy is recovering. In fact, the rally is little more than a manifestation of the epic fraud that has postponed the financial system’s day of reckoning.