Whew, now we’re getting chemo!

In a big red box right now on CNNFN.com: “Dow soars 417, biggest point rise in nearly 6 years, as investors cheer Fed’s move to pump $200B into the banking system.”

It’s amazing to me that this Fed move comes as a relief to anyone. This reminds me of some kind of sad joke that would go like this:

Patient goes in to the doctor’s office thinking he’s got a nasty cold. Doctor diagnoses cancer, prescribes chemotherapy. Patient goes home and tells his wife, “Good news honey! My doctor’s given me really strong medicine for my cold.”

Maybe all this buying is short-covering? Or maybe the down market has had far more rotten rumors built into it than we’d all guessed?

Or maybe the market will go down 10% in the coming month.