Forget bulls and bears, today's market action is all about the monster, a red one named Elmo.

Before you click out of my post in disgust, here me out. Elmo viewers, like my 19-month-old son, learn that anything is possible provided that you have a good imagination and some simple art supplies. Another word for this is self-fulling prophecy.

When it comes to investing, sentiment comes in waves. When times are good, Wall Street analysts trip over themselves to come up with superlatives to describe the wonderfulness of the market. They then kick the market as it goes down and stays down. Then all of the sudden, pundits start arguing that things are not as bad as they seem, a phase that we are in today.

"Analysts say the stock market has been struggling in recent days to adjust its economic outlook, with some experts increasingly optimistic that the U.S. can avoid an outright recession," The Wall Street Journal says. "On the other hand, many remain nervous that the economy will suffer a prolonged bout of weak growth that might feel to many Americans like a recession even if it doesn't fit the technical definition of one."