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The second quarter is now behind us and for the most part it was a positive one in terms of the market pushing higher almost 40%. This is the second review of my 2009 stock picks through June 30 (see: Chasing Value: 9 picks for 2009 -- APC, GE, ISRG, WFC and more). There was a lot of talk about green shoots this past quarter as Wall Street was looking for any small bit of optimistic data to support the market.

The federal printing presses continued to run at full speed pushing the dollar lower and oil prices higher. While the feds were printing money to cover their deficits, the States do not have that same luxury and many of them are having trouble balancing their budgets to the tune of billions of dollars.

"The conditions are in place for a 'Best Buy' opportunity," says Jim Stack, whose buy signal should receive special attention give the accuracy of his sells signals which side-stepped the bear market.

In addition, the money manager and editor of Investech Market Analyst is beginning to increase his equity positions, such as Nike (NYSE: NKE). He states, "With a portfolio of iconic brands, an identified growth strategy, recognized innovation, and sound financial footing, Nike fits the bill of being a great company."

"Very rarely do we have all these conditions in place – that's only occurred five times in the last 45 years. Historically, this means we should give the growing evidence of a new bull market every benefit of doubt.

"Midyear is as good a time as any to pause and reflect," says Richard Moroney in Dow Theory Forecasts -- a newsletter with the distinction of having been published for more than 50 years.

Here, he reviews the state of the market and offers a look at trio of favorite stocks which he considers "fundamentally superior" companies: Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB), Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), and Oceaneering International (NYSE: OII).

One could make a pretty strong argument that members of today's 20-something generation represent the new investment skeptics.

And can you blame them? If you're in your late 20s, you've probably experienced two epic stock market collapses: the collapse of the Nasdaq/dot-com bubble in 2000, and the end of the leverage-fueled stock market bubble in 2008.

"Stocks are likely in a new downtrend," says Michael Ashbaugh. In Marketwatch's The Technical Indicator, he looks at the S&P's prospects and some drug stocks set to buck the trend.

"The S&P 500 has violated its major moving averages in the closely tracked 900 area. The recent downturn was convincingly bearish, placing the burden on market bulls to reassert the uptrend.

"After finding resistance in the 923 area, the S&P sold off sharply, edging back under its 200-day moving average, which currently holds at 900 and now marks resistance. This is bearish price action.

A report today in The New York Post reveals that bailed-out Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is still doling out millions in bonuses to attract and retain top banking talent. Bank of America is catching heat over the bonus payouts, since it hasn't yet received federal clearance to repay its $45 billion in TARP loans.

Bank of America allegedly shelled out $15 million over two years to keep Fares Noujaim, an alumnus of both Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch, who now serves as the company's vice chairman of investment banking. Harry McMahon is named as another banker who's been enticed to stay with handsome bonuses.

"Overall, we believe quality technology stocks offer above-average growth potential and attractive valuations," says Gregory Dorsey.

In Stephen Leeb's The Complete Investor, he explains, "International Business Machines(NYSE: IBM) has plowed ahead despite a daunting economic and business environment; we are adding the stock to our Growth & Income Portfolio."

"For prudent investors in this challenging economy, most of the major technology companies are financially solid, often with little or no debt and lots of cash on their books. This makes them good long-term vehicles even if the economy remains off the rails for a prolonged period.

Oil prices have dropped a bit this morning, challenging support at the $70 level, due mainly to what some call "mixed signals" about the U.S. economy. The black gold has backed off as data pointed to the fact that the U.S. economy is still weak, even if it is emerging from the recession.

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve announced that industrial production dropped more than expected during May, which has triggered the new weakness in the oil patch. Crude prices have also felt the sting of the market's early week weakness as the Dow Jones Industrial Average has backed off from its recent rally. In addition, the dollar has played an important part in crude prices. A weak dollar leads to higher oil prices as commodities are considered a safe-haven investment against a weak dollar.

Are we in a bull or bear market? If you came to this article for an answer, forget about it. If you think you know the answer, forget about it. One of the challenges of trading the markets is not knowing the answer. For example, earlier this year Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve announced that the Fed was buying treasury securities, which to all stretches of the imagination would trigger a bull market in treasuries. Now then, if you jumped in and bet the farm, you are the proud owner of a huge losses as the treasury market fell out of bed during recent months.

This is not to say that we shouldn't do our research to determine in our minds where the market is going. There are those analysts who look at long-term trends lasting for several years and sometimes decades. These longer periods are called "secular" trends. Then we have others who look at shorter periods, which are often called. "cyclical" moves. The "cyclical" moves usually fall within the longer "secular" markets.

The market spent the day as it has many a Friday in the summer: slowing going no where.

The University of Michigan/Reuters consumer sentiment index showed a very modest increase in June up to 69, from 68.7 in May. The same survey showed that expectations for six months from now actually dropped.

Oil and gas prices still dominated the headlines. Oil still hovers around $72 and the average price of gas rose for the 45th consecutive day to $2.63. The has to rattle consumers who have precious little discretionary income as it is.

Despite a strongly bearish long-term outlook, technicians Stephen Hochberg and Robert Prechter continue to see near-term upside for the market.

In The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast, a specialty service focused on a form of technical analyst known as Elliott wave theory, they explain, "Optimism is definitely on the increase, but it is not yet as the exteme that typically accompanies the end of a Primary degree rally.

"So notwithstanding near-term gyrations, the Dow should rise to the initial target, which remains in the 9,000 to 10,000 range.

In an interview with Reuters, Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) reported that it expects sales in China to gain 10% in 2009. "This is one of the times when I love being in the food business. This is a market that, whatever happens in the economy, people still eat. And we have a range of products to serve everybody's needs," explained Lorna Davis, the company's president of operations in China. "Opportunities here are just huge," she added.

The projected 10% sales growth for 2009 roughly corresponds with Kraft's 2008 sales results in China. The food firm plans to maintain its healthy pace of expansion by way of a 20% boost to advertising spending. "If you want to build your business here and you don't spend more than 10 percent of your total revenue on advertising, you are not going to grow," asserted Davis.

Do you remember the movie: "All the President's Men." Do you remember the line: "follow the money?" Well very often traders follow the big players in the market to get an indication as to how strong the rally really is.

So what is it that the big money players are looking at? There is also an old adage: "go away in May" and come back in the fall. Well maybe not this year.Here are some data and thoughts about the current rally:

• First off, this rally has been well contained. By that we mean that there has been a lot of backing and filling, not just a one time shot up. If you look at a chart you will see much of this around the 8400 level in the Dow.
• Secondly, This rally started off from a very oversold base. The Dow had dropped 60%, or 257 points from its all time high. It may be that the Lehman debacle punched the Dow a notch lower than it needed to go.
• By buying back now investors are simply correcting the mistake that was made on the downside.
• World stocks as tracked by the MSCI have risen 45%.
• The price of oil has more than doubled since February.
• Stocks are rising in the face of bad economic data, such as the report that US economy shrank by 5.7% in the first quarter, year on year.
• The GM bankruptcy has been discounted and has removed one more point of uncertainty in the market.
• Nearly all investors' sentiment indicators are at an all time high.
• Reuters asset allocation polls last week showed equity holdings steady among leading investors.
• Fund tracker EPFR detected a continued appetite for riskier assets.

So when you look at this whole bag of information, we see that the big players are still hanging on and their craving for greater risk taking is growing, and is the main reason they are not jumping ship, at least not now.

Do you believe that this rally will continue?

Downtrodden Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), which received its walking papers from Dow Jones on Monday, has informed five of its former executives that they'll no longer be receiving severance payouts. According to a report today in The Wall Street Journal [subscription required], recently departed executives Kevin Kessinger and Michael Klein will be among those affected by the decision.

Already, Citi has doled out approximately half of the $100 million it pledged to these former execs. The U.S. Treasury hasn't demanded that the severance payments be halted, but sources close to the bailed-out bank say that Citi's top brass "[want] to avoid even the possibility of a public backlash over the money."

Even though it would seem that Citi is finally getting a handle on the concept of money management -- or public relations, at the very least -- investors are hardly cheering. The stock has given up more than 3% today, extending its year-to-date drop of 45%. In fact, the shares are currently in position to finish the session below their 10-day and 20-day moving averages, which would mark the first breach of this double-barreled support since May 1.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that it's the most conservative player in an industry filled with gunslingers.

The keepers of the Dow Jones Industrial Average must have felt insurance-less after the defrocking of AIG (NYSE: AIG) (Cramer's Take), so it's fitting that they added Travelers (NYSE: TRV) (Cramer's Take) to the list, even as I would have preferred Ford (NYSE: F) (Cramer's Take) or Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer's Take).

They needed a financial that wasn't a bank and there aren't many out there that still trade at anything but desperate levels or weren't saved by the government.