it's official: recession since dec 07, page-25

I disagree. That's called a bear market rally. Until the future is clear, or least shows some signs of improving, the market will continue going down. At the moment the news is bad, very bad. Banks etc are now making it very hard for consumers to get credit. Remember, 2/3 of the US economy is consumer based. And while the $US is so high, exports will suffer. Double whammy. We haven't seen the worst yet. These problems in the US will flow on to the rest of the world.