These are strange times on Wall Street, where stocks keep grinding higher even as news on the U.S. economy worsens. Consider the numbers. Last week, the number of Americans who applied for jobless benefits rose to a five-year high while the unemployment rate jumped to its worst levels since 1998.
Manufacturing remains in a deep slump.
And Corporate America just wound up its worst quarter for profits in a decade. But you wouldn't know it from the stock market. On Friday, the Nasdaq composite index finished nearly 34 percent above its early April low. The Dow Jones industrial average stands more than 17 percent above its last bottom, reached in late March. And the gains may not be over.