Today was a great way to start out the second quarter for the stock market. The major market averages all gained more than 3% on the day. The much maligned financial sector was the leader today, which is certainly encouraging for a turnaround. Traders and investors are both hoping this is the start to a much better quarter for stocks than the first quarter was. Today's rally was on what appeared to be little news worthy of a major of a major market rally like we saw today. 
It seems like the market wants to rally, but will the economy allow it? You might be asking, "Exactly what do you mean by that?" I mean that the sentiment right now seems to be that there are buyers out there, but those buyers will most certainly fade away quickly if the economic data points to a severe recession or even worse a depression.
The stock market is a very fickle business. A day like today can make someone feel like a thousand bucks, but just as easily the rest of the week could be a very different story. Right now it seems like stocks want to bottom and move higher into the future, but the economic data will tell the story.
Simply put, the stock market is all about uncertainty or the lack of it. If the next few months we begin to see a pattern of economic data that is leveling off, we may well see buyers control the market. If we see the economic data continuing to accelerate to the downside, today's market action will be a distant memory very quickly.
Today's action is encouraging since it shows that investors want to commit new money, but it will be the economic data that will drive the markets.
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