Market Call: The Worst & The Best Of Times

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens famously begins, ''It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.'' Two weeks ago was the worst week for the stock market so far this year. Last week was the best week for the stock market so far this year.

In the July 28 Quicktakes, we wrote: "Our hunch is that the stock market will continue to churn around current levels, rotating and remaining below its July 16 record high of 5667.20 through the presidential election. We expect a strong yearend rally to deliver a new record high." We anticipated that the market might be choppy, though not as much is it has been in the past two weeks (chart).