Now wasn’t that rally special! Our friend Mike Schurr alerted me Wednesday night to the pattern shown, instantly solving the mystery of why the futures were refusing to go any lower despite evidence that the world economy is rapidly going to hell in a hand basket. Buyers briefly changed their deranged minds in the early going Thursday morning, surrendering the modest gains they’d achieved in thin markets overnight. But when they caught a whiff of bull manure emanating from the energy patch, where crude was in the throes of a dead-cat bounce, the short-squeeze on Wall Street was off and running. It may have seemed impressive at the time, but notice that it didn’t come even remotely close to surpassing any peaks of significance, even on the lowly hourly chart (inset). Another short-covering hoax?  Yes, probably. Even so, we’ll stand aside Friday and let it do its thing, since you can never tell what kind of craziness will seize the proletarian mind ahead of a three-day weekend. My gut feeling is that the bear market is still too young to be generating the kind of short squeeze rallies that will cause bears to pull their hair out. Whatever happens as the week draws to a close, the Rick’s Picks chat room will offer a ringside seat and technically illuminating, if aggressively biased, running commentary. Click here for a free trial subscription that will let you join the fun for two weeks. _______ UPDATE (10:20 a.m. EST): The broad averages are getting crushed this morning, reversing the phony exuberance of an overnight short squeeze. What a delightful end to the week! U.S. stocks have evidently become completely subservient to the ups and (mostly) downs of Chinese stocks, and to news concerning the yuan. A small devaluation last night has caused the Dow to open 400 points lower.  Just for good measure, Walmart announced it will close 154 stores in the U.S.  How’s that ‘recovery’ working for you, Mr. President?  And how about another 25 basis points of theatrical ‘tightening’, Janet? You clown.