It's not a 'Rodney Dangerfield' market - as it gets too much respect. Very smart analysts sum it up by saying 'hallelujah' or even calling it the 'greatest bull market ever'.

That's the case 'even if' the market holds up and doesn't break. However in an internal way the market has been correcting rotationally; and it's still the basic underlying theme at the moment (look at the Oscillators and A/D line).

This matters, as aside an 'event' (which we expected would ultimately occur for IBM's transition as discussed last night and occasionally for two years as they shifted to transactional and cloud-based App or program development) like IBM (which is all that drove Wednesday); or perhaps biotech since one key new cancer treatment was announced late today (but highly expensive so questionable whether insurance will pay); but the key was that the newer 'classes' of drugs are getting approved, so that helps the sector overall.

Bottom line: Lots of the future has been discounted, 'even if' you get tax reform. Now I'm the guy who said this market heavily depended on getting tax cuts and keeping a global recovery underway.

It's a reason I called (and do call) for a 'hit' that is most likely a correction not a catastrophe that former bears were calling for (there are no more bears so that's a bearish consideration too of course). What's happened is they lever to keep this going, rather than talk about leverage 'after' you get rate hikes, which is when it usually occurs (and results in an inverted yield curve, etc.).

Now I do believe that while they are searching for 'votes' in Congress; there was a mistake made by Treasury Secretary Mnuchin 'tying' stock market advances in the future to getting 'tax reform'. I actually agree with that! But I just don't think he should say it. That makes it looking like Government that takes the market 'hostage' to a political decision, rather than the argument that the market advance is based on actual earnings and business gains.

In sum: hopefully you understand my cynicism about Government officials claiming 'ownership' of the stock market advance, even if the extension has (it was my forecast) come about because of Trump's election (mostly policy not simply him). Now they're basically saying if Congress doesn't give us tax cuts promptly, the market 'will' tank (crash?). Again I agree; but headwinds are created beyond those that already existed by saying that. Now pundits are crowing that the market rallied 'anyway' in the face of such statements.

Actually it did not rally; it was a flat session generally; with just IBM being at least the majority of the DJIA's rise. In any case, the euphoria about 23,000 Dow as the 'greatest bull market ever', oh please. The late 1990s is where the fastest money was made and the bull market was in my view all the way from the indicated (yes I was around) low 'during' OPEC's war on the West in the mid 1970s, which I called a 'generational buying opportunity', until the top in 2000 (and yes bullish for five years from 2002 forward and so on).

The point is not that this is a 'generational selling opportunity', but is closer to that (I can still measure higher numbers until if finally really rolls over, but I'd not chase or look for general buying into this market at all) than it is to other approaches. Too many trying to find 'bargains', and aside a few under-radar stocks, that in itself is a warning that internally they know this is extended.

Conclusion: it's still an 'exhaustion phase', and dangerous; especially if this goes higher on a daily basis. Ideally investors get lucky and we get 'only' a correction coming; and not something a bit more risky.