The Index was reported on at 10am and the stock market did not lift until 12:30pm. Moreover, nothing at all happened in the broad market for the 2 and a half hours of trading following the ISM report.

Btw, yesterday (or maybe Wed.), Hank McKinnell, the Pfizer CEO and head of the Business Council, while being interviewed by CNBC, said that in the past 12 months, "America has created two million jobs " here and abroad".

I didn't think outsourcing to India and China counted. :-)

Maybe he was referring to the 300,000 employed in the Iraqi war theater?

No, really, I didn't understand. Somebody please enlighten me.

I forgot to say that the ISM Services Index of 60.1 for February is quite a bit higher than January's reading, but it is about average for the past 9 months, including a horrific October following Hurricane Katrina.

In fact, if you look at the chart above, you will see that the Aug-03 through Sept-05 period, this index averaged about 63. So I don't know what's so hot about 60.1 other than I guess it makes for a good story to people who don't look at the detail.

The devil is always in the detail. :-)

This market lifted at about 12:30pm today because a very few people decided it was going to lift.