The economic numbers are getting better, and every time the bears call an overbought market the market just gets even more overbought. Even some of the bulls are surprised at how there has been no pullback. The housing prices and consumer confidence reflect this data.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,539.21 +29.93 (0.31%)
S&P 500 1,028.00 +2.43 (0.24%)
Nasdaq 2,024.23 +6.25 (0.31%)

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Despite the Dow breaking to new lows, there were a number of positive signs on Friday that could indicate that a bear market rally is just about to get underway.

As pointed out by our friends at Dorsey Wright, the Nasdaq has remained above its November low of 1,295, and the S&P 500 is also just above its November low of 741. And Dorsey said its NYSE Bullish Percent took a big hit on Friday, falling 5.6% to 26.4%. But this is well above the November lows of 8% and they said it is "exactly what we want to see in a re-test with individual stocks holding up better than the indices."

The struggle between the bulls and bears continued on Friday with what appeared to be a victory for the bears. And, long-term, they do have the edge since there is little doubt that every major index is still pointing south.

Friday's close at 8,001 on the Dow surely got the bulls' attention, as 8,000 appears to have some psychological importance to the investing public. But it has little technical significance.

The support line that has held since November (with the exception of the bear trap of Nov. 20 and Nov. 21) is actually at around 7,940. And the numbers that most technicians refer to as "the" market's support is at the zone between S&P 500 800 and 820.

For guidance at crucial moments, I prefer to check out the most reliable internal and sentiment indicators.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Acergy, Casey's General and Corinthian Colleges were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Citigroup downgraded shares of Acergy (NASDAQ: ACGY) to Sell from Hold as they see risk to the company's backlog and believes the recent share rally is not supported by business operations.
  
• Casey's General (NASDAQ: CASY) was downgraded at Friedman Billings to Underperform from Market Perform citing headwinds that include weak gas comps.
  
• Banc of America downgraded shares of Corinthian Colleges (NASDAQ: COCO) to Neutral from Buy as they believe the post-legislation lending overhang will limit further share upside until COCO can show its students can access federal funds with minimal disruption.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Bernstein cut EMC Corp (NYSE: EMC) to Market Perform from Outperform.
  
• Baird lowered Woodward Governor (NASDAQ: WGOV) to Neutral from Outperform.
  
• Merrill downgraded Sealed Air (NYSE: SEE) and Bemis (BMS) to Sell from Neutral.

Monday August 27

• Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd (NASDAQ: SNDA) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9am.
• Landstar System Inc (NASDAQ: LSTR) to hold Q3 mid-quarter conference call at 2pm.

Tuesday August 28

• Corinthian Colleges Inc (NASDAQ: COCO) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 12pm.

Wednesday August 29

• TiVo Inc (NASDAQ: TIVO) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 5pm.
• Novell Inc (NASDAQ: NOVL) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 5pm.

Thursday August 30

• Freddie Mac Corp (NYSE: FRE) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 10am.
• Novellus Systems Inc (NASDAQ: NVLS) to hold Q3 mid-quarter conference call at 4:30pm.
• PDUFA Date for Tericia Inc (NASDAQ: TRCA) for Somatuline Autogel for acromegaly.

Friday August 31

• Blyth Inc (NYSE: BTH) to hold Investor Q&A conference call at 2pm.

After peaking at $98 a share in June 2004, Apollo Group' s stock has headed straight downhill and now trades at about $41.

After a great bull run that began in 1995, the industry began to mature and these stocks rolled over.

We blogged earlier today about how Pequot Capital's chief, Art Samberg, likes cotton. He also is looking for a turnaround in publicly traded education stocks. The stocks he likes are Apollo Group (NASDAQ: APOL), Career Education (NASDAQ: CECO) and Corinthian Colleges (NASDAQ: COCO).

Apollo has been putting a lot of money into its on-line community college program, Axia College, which it hopes can accelerate Apollo's growth rate. Management is hopeful Axia will be a feeding tube for its four-year on-line college, University of Phoenix.

Samberg also believes Career Education, which has been a real bloodbath, could be ripe for a turnaround under new management.

Publicly traded education stocks, as an industry, have stayed away from using leveraged balance sheets. Samberg notes that if current valuation persists and if fundamentals start improving, private equity firms could find these companies very attractive.