Bernanke completed his two days before Congress today and apparently succeeded in not spooking Wall Street. SPX gained $8 to close at $1689 and RUT closed at $1050 for a gain of $8 on the day. Volatility was unchanged with the VIX at 13.8%. Trading volume in the S&P 500 jumped up to the 50 dma at 2.4 billion shares. Trading volume on the NYSE was unchanged, but was up 10% on NASDAQ.

Today's economic news was reasonably positive with initial unemployment claims dropping 24 thousand to 334k. Continuing unemployment claims declined 63 thousand to 2.96 million. The Philadelphia Fed survey moved to 19.8 for July, up significantly from June's 12.5.

So it appears that the formulas of mediocre economic growth coupled with Fed stimulus continue to push this market higher. It doesn't seem like the current level of economic recovery is sufficiently robust to drive a bullish market as strong as what we have witnessed, but it has...

We don't have any major economic data being reported tomorrow and presumably we won't hear from Bernanke for a while. So will Friday be a dull nowhere trading day? Or will the bulls continue their buying spree? Or will Google cast a shadow on the market? (They missed earnings after the bell today.)