Tuesday was an up-day on most index readings as earnings season gets further underway. The notion that there are no blow-ups so far is helping to ease some fears of the cautious bulls. A private placement from Portugal also may have helped out even if that is more cause of concern longer-term. Another snow storm is about to shut down the Eastern Seaboard all over again. These are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones: 11,671.81 +34.36 (0.30%)
S&P 500: 1,274.47 +4.72 (0.37%)
Nasdaq: 2,716.83 +9.03 (0.33%)

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As goes the first day of trading, so goes the year. That is what many investors believe in one form or variation. Another expansion in manufacturing helped and bonds started out weak. The real culprit for gains was more gains in overseas stock markets followed by expectations for more positive gains in 2011. If you weight the DJIA components equally, I even have a formula that calls for the DJIA moving above 13,000 in 2011. That formula last year came within about 1% of the DJIA close in 2010.

Here are today's closing bells:

Dow Jones 11,670.75 +93.24 (0.81%)
S&P 500 1,271.87 +14.23 (1.13%)
Nasdaq 2,691.52 +38.65 (1.46%)

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Tiring is how you'd explain the next to last trading session of 2010. The markets whipped around all day. A huge regional business spending gain in Chicago and the first sub-400,000 weekly jobless claims failed to give us any further runaway days. That was despite also having a positive housing figure.

After less than a handful of red S&P closes in December, the markets were soft most of the day and a late-day rally made the red or black verdict for the market something one couldn't predict until right at the close.

Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 11,569.71 -15.67 (-0.14%)
S&P 500 1,257.88 -1.90 (-0.15%)
Nasdaq 2,662.98 -3.95 (-0.15%)

If you are looking for clues telling you which stocks have a good chance of increasing in value, you might want consider watching what insiders are doing. After all, talk is cheap, but when insiders put their own money on the line, you should sit up and take note.

Citigroup (C) topped the insider-buying charts for the week ending July 9th as insiders snapped up 542,198 shares of company stock at a market value of $2,330,386. During the past six months, insiders have increased their overall holdings in the company by 26.58% and now own 0.08% of C stock.

General Motors (GM) was not far behind, with insiders buying 43,150 shares at a market value of $1,455,536.

How you look at today's FOMC meeting is up to you, but the stock market bounced in reaction to the FOMC's decision to reinvest rolling maturities into more Treasury bonds. A higher oil forecast from the EIA also lent more credence to a sustained growth despite some tempering of those growth estimates.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 10,644.25 -54.50 (-0.51%)
S&P 500 1,121.08 -6.71 (-0.59%)
Nasdaq 2,277.17 -28.52 (-1.24%)

Today was one of those days where the news was tied to more hope and a decent start to earnings season than over any great breaking global news. A barely-decent 10-Year Treasury auction was not showing anything rotten, and it seems that the corporate credit markets are starting to open back up. News on deficits being another $1 trillion held nothing back for stock gains. Can you believe it, six straight days of gains in stocks? Cramer coming back after a holiday and saying that the bottom of the market has been seen for the year may have also gotten some comfort back in the game from retail investors.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,363.02 +146.75 (1.44%)
S&P 500 1,095.28 +16.53 (1.53%)
Nasdaq 2,242.03 +43.67 (1.99%)

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Standard & Poor's is performing some end-of-year cleanup on its benchmark index, the S&P 500 Index (SPX). My colleague Mark Fightmaster reported earlier that Visa (V) is set to replace Ciena Corp. (CIEN) on the widely watched market barometer, but that's not the only SPX development hitting Wall Street today. In fact, struggling insurance issue MBIA Inc. (MBI) is preparing to take its leave from the venerable index.

In a press release late Friday, Standard & Poor's explained that MBIA "currently ranks 500th in the index and is no longer representative of the S&P 500 index market cap space." The beaten-down insurance company will be replaced by Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN), which is in the process of being spun off by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY).

We had another bit of data showing strong home sales in Q3, but as prices fell. Yet the only real thing to note was that the sell-off that was starting out this morning just didn't hold when you look at the broad indexes today. Some dollar directional changes may be part of the issue that kept the stocks from getting cheaper. There were still many losers on the day.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,247.88 +20.94 (0.20%)
S&P 500 1,093.04 -0.04 (0.00%)
Nasdaq 2,151.08 -2.98 (-0.14%)

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The conventional wisdom is that consumer spending is what drives the U.S. economy. And consumer spending arises out of consumer confidence. Unfortunately, the signals along the road to economic recovery are mixed, what with the rising GDP growth and the dismal unemployment numbers. Its enough to leave investors scratching their heads. What barometers of consumer confidence will the coming week bring?

The TIPP Economic Optimism Index for November is scheduled for Tuesday, and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for November is due out Friday.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer believes we'll get a selloff, but is mindful that stocks tend to come back.

Anyone approaching the month of September long will feel pressured to sell given the history of the month. We all know that September's been brutal for years in markets that are up, and we know that everyone's expecting bad things to come in. We have now read a gazillion articles about how it is impossible to have a real rally based on earnings with no sales, and each article sounds incredibly compelling.

Of course, you could have written the same article for the last 3,000 points, but that's OK too.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this bank is the best call on the next leg of the market.

Citigroup's (NYSE: C) (Cramer's Take) plan to split itself into two banks -- the retail/service/investment bank and Citi Holdings, which would consist of (among other things) the household lending arm and the old special purpose vehicles -- will work if the government gives it time. It will work for the same reason the "Bankers Win Big in Toxic Pay Plan," article in The Wall Street Journal states: Much of what was thought to be worthless or worth pennies in Citi Holdings is really money good and will pay off when due.

That's how you can get the book value of Citigroup to go up, and given that Tier 1 capital has not been an issue -- they have a ton of it -- you are going to see book go up quarter after quarter.

You can learn a lot from your elders and when it comes to investing, you best listen very attentively. I often refer to 'my pal Warren' in my posts and I credit Mr. Buffett's investment advice and parables over the years for much of my gains in 2009.

There is another mentor, though, one I have not referred to often but that I have gleaned some wisdom from in terms of value investing and courage, and that is 'my pal Sir John.' While Buffett has been very straight forward in his position that you should buy on fear and this was the year to do that, it was Templeton that preached buying far and wide and diversifying broadly into out-of-favor companies. As he did when he started out.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says in the wake of an upgrade, FCX has to do a big equity offering.

What will Richard Adkerson do? I can tell you what the CEO of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) ought to do in the wake of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch upgrade to buy from sell. He ought to do the biggest darned equity offering in history.

I like Richard. He's candid, he's a great copper man, but he spent too much at the high on Phelps Dodge and wasn't prepared when copper prices plummeted as his balance sheet's simply not so hot. So he had to cut his dividend at the bottom, literally at the exact bottom.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says you'll miss some great opportunities if you blindly believe all the bad news.

You want a rebuke to the "never-ending woes of commercial and residential real estate mortgage bonds"? You get one every day in this market, and today is no different. Look at what is up big today: Genworth (NYSE: GNW) (Cramer's Take), Lincoln National (NYSE: LNC) (Cramer's Take), Wyndham (NYSE: WYN) (Cramer's Take), Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) (Cramer's Take) and Zions (NASDAQ: ZION) (Cramer's Take). Each in its own way needs the residential or commercial real estate markets to be robust to thrive, and if the myriad articles I read about the horrible state of the mortgage bond market and the dim commercial real estate prospects were true, why would you be making money in Wyndham, a gigantic timeshare company? How could Regions and Zions be rallying? They are among the worst of the worst; unless you consider Genworth and Lincoln National, which are supposed to be roadkill because of all of their mortgage bonds.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) reported dismal Q1 numbers as same-store sales plunged.
• Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) dismal Q2 results were in line with analysts' expectations.
• Bankrate Inc. (NASDAQ: RATE) reported lower earnings and revenue for Q1 and offered no guidance.
• Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI) earnings, revenue, and same-store sales all fell in the first quarter.
• Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE: DPS) Q1 earnings declined but still topped analysts' expectations.