Stocks soared, albeit closing off of the highs, on technical factors.

This player was hard-pressed to explain the stock rally based off of fundamentals, which remain unchanged for the most part.

After a straight week of selling off, stocks may simply have been due for an upward technical bounce.

The media pounced on record "Black Friday" retail sale numbers, driven in part by online sales, to call an economic recovery while cooler heads pointed out that the holiday shopping season lasts for longer than just one weekend.

Ever the barometer of the market's unease, U.S. Treasury bonds remained very well bid rallying off of their lows to close almost unchanged on the day.

With many unconfirmed rumors floating out of Europe (an IMF bailout for Italy, a Eurobond issue etc.), investors flocked to the relative safety of U.S. government debt.

That enduring safe harbor bid for U.S. government debt can initially come across as confusing in the context of the U.S. congressional impasse.



But as an astute pundit pointed out, maybe U.S. Treasury bonds are rallying because of (and not despite) the lack of a U.S. Super Committee resolution.



The realization is dawning on the markets that there may be no "silver bullet" to battle anemic economic growth, not to mention the deflationary impact of automatic cuts to the budget (payroll and unemployment benefits etc.).



And when one takes a step back and looks at events unfolding across the world, from Europe's governance woes to China's economy (that is due for a bubble burst) to a potential conflagration in the Middle East, the relative stability in the U.S. still looks much better than the alternatives.



In the world of investing, you're only as good as your next best alternative.



Representative Barney Frank, of Dodd Frank repute, announced that he would step down at the end of his Congressional term.



Whether it was simple exhaustion or the stress of dealing with a mountain of financial regulation that forced Frank's decision remains to be learned but Frank will likely stay close to the political scene.



It will be a busy calendar with the Fed's beige book, initial jobless claims, payroll, and unemployment numbers out this week.