Might the stock market have hit a major bottom on the very day that it also satisfied the official definition of a bear market?

That distinct possibility is raised by the market’s stunning recovery in the last hour of today’s trading session, which appears to satisfy the definition of a “key reversal day”—a technical event that some technicians believe to be potentially quite bullish.

A key reversal day occurs when the market records a new low and then rallies to close above the previous day’s close. And that’s exactly what happened Tuesday.

Mark Hulbert is skeptical in this short piece posted over at marketwatch.com. He should be, as not too many investors with deep pockets would have been prepared to catch a falling knife that late in the day yesterday. Only the President's Working Group on Financial Markets...a.k.a. the Plunge Protection Team would be involved in a market operation that size...and once the inevitable short-covering rally kicked in...then 'Bob's your uncle'. The link is here.

Here's another story from the top drawer of the 'You-can't-make-this-stuff-up' filing cabinet.

While soaring volatility in gold and copper, not to mention silver, results in one after another margin hike to "cool off the speculators"...when it comes to financial stocks, especially in the "tail wag the dog" variety where the synthetic drives the stock price, a surge in volume means a cut in margins, or 33% to be precise.

Expect more margins cuts, this time in ES offset by margins hike in all other instruments, especially of the public enemy #1 variety, such as precious metals and crude.

Casey Research's own Bud Conrad sent that story around today. This very short zerohedge.com story is a must read...and the link is here.

Bernanke wasn’t optimistic about the outlook. He said a close reading of recent economic data doesn’t show any hint of improvement ahead for the weak U.S. labor market.

“Recent indictors, including new claims for unemployment insurance and surveys of hiring plans, point to the likelihood of more sluggish job growth in the period ahead,” Bernanke said.

This marketwatch.com story from yesterday was sent to me by reader Donna Badach...and the link is here.

Life in the future won't necessarily be so bad. The lust for MORE will become a lust for BETTER, says Bill Bonner, founder of the Daily Reckoning.

Yes, the age of easy growth is over. You probably won't make any money buying stocks. And your house will never return to the levels of '05-'06. And oh yes...you may not be able to get a job.

But that's the good news. We'll deal with the bad news some other day.

It's not often that something from Bill is posted in the clear...and when it is, it's normally well worth reading. I've read it...and yes, it is. It's posted over at the bullionvault.com website...and I thank reader Thorsten Winkler for sending it along. The link is here.

The euro crisis is nothing if not stressful for European politicians. Now, though, Angela Merkel's chief of staff, who is also a member of the chancellor's cabinet, is under fire for a profanity-laced tirade he directed at a fellow conservative in the run-up to a crucial vote on the euro backstop fund. Many are calling for him to be replaced.

Signs of strain have become impossible to ignore in Athens as well. Indeed, according to a story in Tuesday's Financial Times Deutschland newspaper, Greek Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreou is considering resigning. The story claims that he has twice spoken with confidants in recent weeks about throwing in the towel.

On Tuesday, a government spokesman declared that the story was "nonsense." But it isn't difficult to imagine that the challenges of steering his country through the debt crisis might be getting to the prime minister.

This Roy Stephens offering from the German website spiegel.de is a short read that's well worth skimming...and the link is here.

Germany's Deutsche Bank issued a profit warning on Tuesday and a Franco-Belgian bank wobbled significantly as Greek debt begins to drag significantly on Europe's financial industry. The European Central Bank is expected to make emergency credit available this week for the first time since the Lehman collapse.

Deutsche Bank on Tuesday said in a statement that the company's earnings targets for 2011 were no longer realistic and that third quarter results were well behind expectations. CEO Josef Ackermann, who is set to vacate his current post next May, had hoped to earn a record pre-tax profit of €10 billion ($13.27 billion) this year. But the bank was forced to write down €250 million in Greek debt in the third quarter after similar write downs of €155 million in the second.

In addition, share prices for stock in the Franco-Belgian bank Dexia plunged on Tuesday, the most recent symptom of its significant holdings of Greek debt. The stock dropped by as much as 38 percent on Tuesday as officials in Belgium and France struggled to come up with a plan to prevent it from collapsing altogether.

This is another Roy Stephens offering from spiegel.de...and this one is definitely worth reading. The link is here.

The French and Belgian governments pledged to support Dexia SA as shares of the lender plunged in Brussels on concern it will require a second government bailout.

France and Belgium will take “all necessary measures” to protect clients and will guarantee all Dexia’s loans, French Finance Minister Francois Baroin and Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said in a statement today. Belgium’s cabinet met in Brussels last night to review the options for the lender. Both governments have stakes in the bank following its bailout in 2008.

West Virginia reader Elliot Simon sent me this must read Bloomberg story from yesterday...and the link is here.

Italy's sovereign debt rating has been cut for the second time in as many weeks, with ratings agency Moody's citing "sustained and non-cyclical erosion of confidence" as it slashed its forecast for the country.

In a report released after US stock markets closed on Tuesday, Moody's downgraded Italy's government bond ratings from Aa2 to A2 with a "negative outlook", suggesting further cuts could be to come. The move threatens to increase Italy's cost of borrowing, and will add yet more pressure to European finance ministers now wrestling with a financial crisis that has spread across the continent.

This story was posted in The Guardian just before midnight last night...and I thank reader Craig Eubanks for sharing this must read story with us. The link is here.

George Osborne has declared that he had defeated plans to regulate over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives that would have given EU financial supervisors the power to decide who could trade in the City. [That's the City of London he's talking about. - Ed]

The EU has moved to pass a directive, the Emir, or European Market Infrastructure Regulation, to regulate the trading of complicated financial instruments that many blamed for causing the global financial crisis. The legislation aims to standardise all derivatives products not traded on a regulated exchange.

The Chancellor said the victory was "important" because 75pc of Europe's OTC derivative trading takes place in London and Britain needed to guard against eurozone protectionism.

Well, dear reader, the latest report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the U.S. shows that just 10 U.S. banks hold over 99% of all U.S. OTC derivative trades...and Britain holds 75% of all of Europe's...so it doesn't take rocket science to figure out that the Anglo/American Empire is still going strong, for the moment that is.

This story was filed late yesterday evening in The Telegraph in London...and I thank Roy Stephens once again for sending it along. The link is here.

The government accused an unidentified “foreign country” of seeking to undermine the stability of the kingdom as a result of the violence in Awwamiya, in which the assailants, some on motorcycles, used machine guns and Molotov cocktails, the Riyadh-based news service reported late yesterday. A man and two women were also injured, it said.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil supplier, escaped the mass protests that toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia this year and spread to Saudi neighbors Yemen and Bahrain. There were rallies earlier in the year in mostly Shiite eastern Saudi Arabia, including Awwamiya and al-Qatif village.

Predominantly Sunni Saudi Arabia has accused Shiite-led Iran of interfering in the affairs of Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, home to three-fifths of the world’s oil reserves. Iran denies the charge and accuses Sunni rulers in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia of discriminating against Shiites. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries sent troops to Bahrain in March to quell the mainly Shiite unrest.

I thank GATA board member Adrian Douglas for sending me this Bloomberg story in the wee hours of this morning...and the link is here.

The CME Group on Monday raised its margin requirements for trading copper and platinum futures, effective after the close of business on Oct 4.

The exchange operator raised initial margins on Comex copper futures by 15 percent to $7,763 a contract, while raising the same requirement on Nymex platinum futures by about 29 percent to $4,950 a contract.

With platinum down over $450 from its peak on August 22nd...and copper flat on its back...it's a little late to be raising margin requirements on either metal. But the CME will leave no stone unturned to help JPMorgan and friends out of any short positions they may have in any of the metals.

I thank Edmonton reader 'Ray' for sending me this very short 2-paragraph Reuters story...which you've already read...but the link is here if you want to look at the hard copy.

Sprott Asset Management's John Embry told King World News yesterday that governments and central banks can't let gold look good when the stock market is falling hard, which explains the latest counterintuitive action in precious metals prices.

I thank Chris Powell for wordsmithing the introduction. An excerpt from the interview...headlined John Embry - Silver is Completely Flushed out to the Downside...is posted here.

It may not feel like it after a 12% correction in the past 30 days, but Mike Maloney - founder of GoldSilver.com - is convinced that we're in a gold bull market that will be life changing for those who participate. I interviewed him for our current edition of BIG GOLD and am sharing some of what we talked about here. You may be shocked at what you read, because he's devoted a larger allocation to gold and silver than we have. See why he's convinced a bubble is ahead for precious metals, how high prices will go, and why he stores some gold overseas. - Jeff

This interview was posted in yesterday's edition of Casey's Daily Dispatch...and is a must read. The link is here.

Eric King sent me both of these stories yesterday...and since Chris Powell was kind enough to do all the work for me, I'll leave the rest to him. The link to both of these must read blogs is contained in this GATA release here.

Ned Naylor-Leyland, investment director for Cheviot Asset Management in London, who spoke at GATA's Gold Rush 2011 conference there in August, complains in a new Cheviot investment letter about JPMorganChase's manipulation of the silver market and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's continuing facilitation of that manipulation. Naylor-Leyland's commentary is headlined "Silver, Gorillas, Madoff, and Financial Regulators -- Will They Ever Learn?"...and you can find it posted at the Scribd.com website.

I thank Ted Butler for sending me this 2-page essay...and Chris Powell for writing the preamble. The link to this absolute must read is here.