Zacks is saying something interesting:

ISM Services was steady at 53.4 and showed signs of potential improvement ahead. 

The competing Markit's US Services PMI report was in contraction territory with very pessimistic overtones including this comment from their Chief Economist, Chris Williamson: 

"Business activity stagnated in February as malaise spread from the manufacturing sector to services. The Markit PMIs are signaling a stagnation of the economy in February, suggesting growth has deteriorated further since late last year." 

Which report is to be believed??? 

ISM is considered the oldest and most widely used version of the services report. And clearly, that is the one that investors followed Thursday as stocks continued their advance. 

However, when I studied the history of these reports side by side it appeared to me that the Markit's version was more often the leading indicator of where the ISM report would be in time. If that holds true now it does not bode well for the economy and stock market. 

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Remains to be seen, but we're leaving the January troubles behind with perpaps a little too easily..

ANd the Ellie Mae CEO sells yet another $3M+ in stock..

But Needham just put a $100 price target on it.

Have a look at this, from Seeking Alpha.

A Historic Bear Market In Metals & Mining Stocks

While the S&P 500 Index, as measured by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY), rose nearly 66% over the last five years, mining and metals companies, as shown by the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining Index ETF (NYSEARCA:XME), declined over 72%. This has been, without a doubt, one of the worst bear markets for commodity stocks.

Here is the case for a bear market. We're not convinced it will play out this way, but looking around in the world economy, apart from the US, it doesn't look good, so it's prudent to keep these things in mind. From Zacks.

We've already argued for years that the euro has been a tragic mistake and the odds are on that it will end very badly. Former BoE governor Mervyn King isn't optimistic either:

Germany’s membership in the euro zone has achieved the opposite of what its architects intended because the single currency has driven its constituent nations apart, former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said. “I worry that this is now going to be a battle between the political will of an elite that created this who daren’t now admit that it was a mistake, and economic arithmetic,” King said on the BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday. “We’re all going to suffer from that.”

Germany Suffers Euro Headache That Will Hurt Europe, King Says - Bloomberg Business

And then there is formerly thriving Finland..

Few Finns probably thought that adopting the euro would mean more work for less pay. Yet trade unions are now getting ready to sign off on a deal that will cut workers’ income and raise working hours. Unveiled last week, it’s designed to boost competitiveness as the Nordic nation struggles within the constraints of the euro zone. The board of Finland’s biggest union, SAK, convenes on Monday to give it its final blessing, which would drive forward a painful process first kicked off by Prime Minister Juha Sipila after he took power in May. But it could be a tight vote. Four of SAK’s most influential members, representing 40 percent of its members, have already said they will reject the deal.

For Finnish Workers, the Euro Means Longer Hours and Lower Pay - Bloomberg Business

And with the emerging market mess and the euro problems and the euro area once again slowing to a crawl and with zero inflation and beleagered banks, and then add:

The world’s credit boom is beginning to show dangerous signs of unraveling, ushering in a period of fresh turmoil for the over-indebted global economy, the Bank of International Settlements has warned. The globe’s top financial watchdog called time on the world’s debt binge, noting that debt issuance and cross border flows in emerging economies slowed for the first time since the aftermath of the global credit crunch at the end of last year.

Debtor days are over as BIS calls time on world credit binge

It's really hard to go all in on the markets, which is why we remain mostly in cash here.

Another substantial ($16M+) sell from an Ellie Mae (ELLI) insider (the VP). We're not worried this is a negative sign for the business as these officials do this routinely. What bugs us a little is that it underlines our thesis (set out here) that ELLI earnings should basically use GAAP figures, which are less than half the non-GAAP ones that the street uses.

Simply because executive incentive pay makes up most of the difference, and officials sell routinely (and the share buyback program moppes it up), it's basically just management pay, in our view. ELLI is by no means the only company to practice this, and the business is otherwise run fantastically.

Yea, we were a bit disappointed with the reaction of the share price of Jinko Solar (JKS) to the excellent quarterly result, but perhaps Jonathan is on to something here:

JinkoSolar is having an amazing year. Stock price has remained range-bound. Management may be keeping the share price down until May convertibles are repurchased. Once the convertibles are out of the way, share price can soar.

How Do JinkoSolar Shares Stay So Low? - JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:JKS) | Seeking Alpha

And his case for the valuation gap in today's share price:

On Tuesday, JinkoSolar announced Q4-2015 results that were out of this world.

Quarterly sales grew year over year by a staggering 104.4% to $937.7M.

Non-GAAP net income was $54M, and operating cash flows were a whopping $357M.

Book value rose to $667M, which means the stock is trading at a mere 1.12X book value.

With these great results in mind, we do need to remember that JinkoSolar is developing a downstream business (constructing and operating solar projects) in China which has reached total capacity of more than 1GW.

The downstream business isn't meant to stay on JKS's books. The company is pursuing a spin-off which in my view could yield $1.5B-$2B. So, 55% of that would go to JKS, since 45% of the downstream business is already owned by three private equity funds.

This "not-so-hidden" asset should immediately increase JKS book value by 2x-3x.

This is actually very good news:

The yuan strengthened after China’s central bank raised its fixing for the fourth day in a row and data showed a less-than-estimated drop in the nation’s foreign-exchange reserves. The currency stockpile shrank by $28.6 billion last month, the smallest decline since June, to $3.2 trillion, the People’s Bank of China said on Monday. That’s lower than the $40.9 billion decrease predicted in a Bloomberg survey of economists, and compares with December’s record drop of $108 billion as the monetary authority supported the yuan.

Yuan Strengthens as PBOC Raises Fixing, Reserves Slow Decline - Bloomberg Business

Capital outflows are slowing, at least for now and this eases the possibility of a substantial yuan depreciation, which would be really bad news for the world economy.

Curious futures are down.