Nearly all of last week’s stock-market gains were generated by about two hours’ worth of concerted buying, most of it short-covering on thin-to-non-existent volume on a Sunday night. It would be an understatement to say there is little bullish enthusiasm for stocks these days. Although pundits have waxed enthusiastic over Q1 earnings reported thus far, many of us have come to regard these numbers as statistical fraud; for seldom do they address the quality of earnings. And even if they did, no one on Wall Street would care as long as the headline numbers beat estimates.  The estimates, too, are a fraud, as we know, perpetrated by Wall Street shills whose paid specialty is underestimating. However, because everyone on the Street and in the news media are in on the con, the game goes on.  Even so, someone will have noticed that Q1 GDP growth has come in at 0.7%. That’s the weakest quarter in three years, not that you could see any evidence of this on stock charts at the moment.