I think it's the pattern from pre-announcements to earnings ? these are two companies (Motorola, Yahoo!) that have beaten lowered expectations, beating pre-announcements. When you expand that to the Microsoft story, it makes it even more powerful today.

A lot of the gains are due to the earnings story. I think the market can deal with one or two more interest rate hikes and believe that the Fed is not going beyond neutral.

It's going to have to be the third-quarter earnings to save the market.

Your first set of pre-announcements are usually your most dramatic and affect the market the most. The last set of pre-announcements have less of an effect upon the market because it is more built-in than at the beginning of the month.

Don't buy your favorite stock until you see the earnings statement. It's better to have the trend with you than guess at a bottom.

The market is waiting to see the earnings because that is your first catalyst in the market that can possibly dispel the slower-than-expected growth that the market is anticipating. The market is very split today. People are just looking for reasons to own some things and reasons to sell others.