Big Rally This Morning -- And -- Data of the Day

Wow! The Dow's up 400 points as I type! All on news that the U.S. and China plan to talk by phone over the next two weeks, and that the U.S. is not going to hit 100% of all remaining imports from China with a 10% tariff come September 1. 

If you've harbored any doubt about where the ultimate concern lies, rallies like this should disabuse of you of that thinking.

Now, not to rain on anyone's parade, but understand that there was huge pessimism in the market coming into this morning; meaning a huge number of shorts got completely trapped by the news and are scrambling mightily to cover (buying big time) those positions. Of course that panicky buying exacerbates the upside, in a big way. 

Beyond this morning's rally, there's a lot of fundamental, as well as technical (per our videos), damage to be repaired before we can begin feeling the least bit at ease. 

The following data reveal that time is of the absolute essence. 

The ZEW monthly surveys are designed to capture the sentiment of the analysts who work for the banks, insurance companies and major industrial firms of the world.

Well, the latest was just released, and, as you can see, and as we've been reporting for months, the world has issues (note the "change" column; that's about as bad as it gets!):



And that includes us!