"Be careful what you wish for" goes the ancient Chinese proverb. The United States government, pushed and prodded by its industrial leaders to get the Chinese to raise the value of the Yuan, should heed these wise words.

The goal, of course, is to make U.S. goods and services cheaper, thereby improving the balance of trade. The problem is that it makes everything cheaper.

It is true that it would support the remaining manufacturing base, software companies, commodities and consulting services. However, this is but a portion of what we have to offer.

What happens if the Yuan increases by 20% against the dollar, and they decide to buy International Business Machines (IBM) the company, not just IBM mainframes? This is not so far fetched. Lenovo bought the ThinkPad notebook computer division from IBM and now it sells Lenovo ThinkPads to us. They would be able to buy IBM 20% cheaper than you or I could buy it.

In August, the U.S. trade deficit showed an unexpected drop of 3.5%. This shrinks the deficit to a mere $30.7 billion – rather than the $33 billion economists expected. Oil prices surged, but the amount of shipments fell precipitously. The increase in exports suggests that the global economy is working its way out o the doghouse.

Exports of goods and services pushed 0.2% higher in August to $28.2 billion. This was the fourth consecutive month of increases. American farm products, cars and parts, industrial engines and telecommunications equipment sales all contributed to the small upward move.

If we learned anything from Tuesday's market, it's that it is spring loaded, pun intended. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 379.44 or 5.8%, closing at 6,926.49. The NASDAQ and S&P were up even more. All this on skimpy news from Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) that it may have made a profit in the first two months of the year. That was all it took to get the market to pop!

For it's part, Citigroup jumped even more, ending the day at $1.45, for a $0.40, or 38.10% gain. Sending a memo to employees is not a novel approach to getting some stock buzz when anything more could have ended up being a lawsuit for potentially misleading investors somewhere down the road.