Another Good Day on Wall Street

Stocks went up again today, and, unless tomorrow is a really terrible day, we should see a third straight week of gains.

" 'Up for the year to date' is a phrase that nobody in the stock market had heard for a long time. Until Thursday," writes Rob Curran for Dow Jones Newswires.

To put it in numerical terms for the day, "The Dow Jones industrial average rose 174 points, or 2.2% at the close," writes Alexandra Twin for CNN. "The S&P 500 index rose 18 points, or 2.3%. The Nasdaq composite rose 58 points, or 3.8%."

The question most people seem to be asking is, does this mean the economy is stabilizing?

I'm inclined to say what I've been saying — that we won't be able to know that until we can look back at some point in the future and can see that things stabilized at a particular point.

No one was able to announce the start of the recession in December 2007, and no one can announce the end of it until well after the fact.

But, like everyone else, I'm looking forward to the day when the recession is behind us.

And I hope the gains in the stock market this month are signs that that time either is upon us or drawing nigh.

Things are looking promising right now. But let's remain calm and see where we're actually headed.