What fundamental change has stocks moving higher?
Fundamentally speaking, the hype.
My theory is that the stock market is up because FED has been printing dollars and pouring them in the top of the economic engine. The only place the dollars can go is into the sump which is the stock market.
This is why printing money does nothing to stimulate the economy: fake dollars are just turning into fake stock valuations.
In a word? Continued pessimism. The oldest, truest maxim of Wall St. is: "The market climbs a wall of worry". Which is why it took in February 2009 and never looked back.
Markets like the sequester. Taming down spending rate increase a bit is better than keep spending at steeply higher rates year after year on borrowed money.
Also Bernanke is pumping $85 Billion every month into the government treasury. (printing money).
Cuts are now much more a part of the discussion in general.
Cash is a position...
When the foundational positions that are steady earners fall, people begin to chase cash. This and people feeling like the run is ending and wanting to get out causes rapid short runs up and down.
Winners need to be ridden, not chased. When the horse is bucking, find a calm one.
Another good indication of when the market is going to be intentionally tanked is a widening spread, even in the face of increased volume. Shows you the market is harvesting the volume by manipulation. When the power that be are manually steering the ship, be sure they are taking you to the rocks.
There is a lot of capital sitting on the sidelines with nowhere else to go.
The Fed pumping is distorting the market, and the smart money is moving out to a broader base, in advance of a decline. There's nowhere else to go if you believe gold is being manipulated by the likes of China and Soros.
Gresham's Law: The bad money drives out the good.