The Bear Might Not yet Have Gone into Hibernation

Timothy Treadwell was a famed animal lover who called himself, "Grizzly Man" because of his work with bears. Well, in 2003 he learned a very valuable (and final) lesson on the impossibility of outrunning such a beast ... as a brown bear made a snack out of him.

Today investors find themselves trying ... not to outrun ... but not to be caught by a bear in somewhat similar fashion. With an historic 1,000-point rise in the Dow yesterday, many thought the Santa Claus rally might have taken hold (though St. Nick did appear to arrive late) ... but futures today indicate the bear might not yet have gone into hibernation ... as its growl this morning (via a 350-point expected morning decline) remains pretty loud indeed.

Regardless of market action of the next few days, we are still looking at one of the worst December declines in over 80 years ... though during times of volatility a lot of comparisons are made by bored writers and headlines such as "the worst Christmas Eve market ever" and "the best day-after-Christmas ever" make their way into financial journalism in order to ... what else? ... capture ratings ... for just posting numbers is never enough.

Related: Don’t Be in Too Big of a Rush to Feed This Bear

One of the most interesting things I saw yesterday related to the President's trip to Iraq. No, I will not say anything political here ... but what I found most fascinating was that, while the intent was there, the "secret" trip was being followed live on Twitter. We live in an age in which everything seems to be tweeted or posted at a moment's notice ... and cameras appear to be everywhere. I think in the future I am going to open a disguise store ... for as technology improves it seems that privacy is certainly on the decline.

I really do need to lose weight ... as I grow more convinced that some bear, somewhere, is eagerly sizing me up for his next meal.