Smoke, mirrors, belief and bullshit = the stock market.

Again, the market doesn't measure a company's worth, it measures the percieved value of a company's worth. And perceptions are things people just pretty much make up as they go along. Attempting to define the market "rationally" then, is a losing game.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » What Comes Down Must Go Up:

"The market is officially insane, with the DOW at 950+ on the day. At least it is in a good direction, but this is still madness.

I am not sure what has changed to make it go up like this- aren’t all the same problems we had last Friday still here today? Yes, governments all over the world are going to rescue the banks, but I fail to understand how a rescue is cause for celebration. Have we not just kicked the can back down the road a few weeks?"