by Rick Ackerman
RickAckerman.com
All heaven broke loose ahead of Tuesday’s opening, starting with a gusher of headlines suggesting the worst is behind us. The Wall Street Journal led with a story about how trucking activity has picked up, and even the hotels and cruise lines are stirring. The pick-up in tempo is slight so far, as the Journal was forced to concede, but sufficient nonetheless for the editors to stuff a hat trick’s worth of subliminally bullish data into stories played above the fold. Elsewhere on the page, in the wrap-up briefs, it was alleged that air travel is creeping back to life, although almost no one you or I know is even thinking about flying for the next few months. Rounding out the Journal’s v-shaped-recovery lollapalooza was an item about mortgage activity picking up, although there was no mention that most of it involves re-fi’s.