Dear Santa: Send More Mouthwash

Certainly, the bailout's most recent beneficiaries and the supplicants at the front of the line are suitably grateful. General Motors is on a 32% joyride on mounting conviction that the trunk will be stuffed with suitcases of federal cash by Christmas. Citigroup's clearly on a roll as well, still basking in the afterglow of its rescue and now facing the happy prospect of escaping one of its more onerous funding commitments from a bygone era.

More impressive still has been the performance of stocks that suffered steep discounts this morning on bad earnings use. Deere, which was down more than 10% at one point after forecasting 2009 earnings nearly 20% below Wall Street's consensus estimate, is now nearly back at breakeven on the session. Tiffany is down a mere 4% amid a deep U.S. sales slump that won't even allow the jewelry chain to hazard a guess about next year's prospects. But the stock was down 11% this morning.

The stock market is certainly writing Santa a nice long letter. After the biggest two-day gain in 30 years, it's now declined two consecutive opportunities to take profits, opting instead to stock up on retailers, banks and drillers. For all anyone knows we're equally likely to see a 300-point drop or another 300-point Dow gain during Friday's morning-long amateur hour. But with stocks no longer falling on bad news, the developing short-term presumption just might that the dips are once again worth buying. And if all those trillions actually manage to arrest some layoffs as well as reviving speculation, that would just be gravy.