Bulls To Bears: Wall Street is stuck in a highly volatile range

Wall Street is stuck in a highly volatile range as investors hoping for a rally into the end of the year are browbeaten by Europe's unfolding crisis. For months, investors have been enthusing about valuations, earnings and, more recently, signs of an improving economy. Those may be good reasons why stocks should rally, but even the most ardent are starting to sound a bit glum. The political intrigue in southern Europe has flummoxed investors stateside. Papademos has replaced Papandreou. Berlusconi is, well, gone -- leaving the presidential palace on Saturday secretly through a side door after his resignation as prime minister while crowds shouted "clown, clown" among other insults and threw coins at his limousine. When word of his departure spread, people danced in the streets and drank Champagne. The headlines and the subsequent volatility seem relentless. Early last week, there were worries about a potential Italian default, and now we've seen government and regime change in two of the periphery nations. Italy's Senate approved a new budget law, clearing the way for approval of the package in the lower house on Saturday and the formation of an emergency government to replace that of Silvio Berlusconi. Papademos was sworn in as Greek prime minister, replacing predecessor Papandreou after days of political wrangling. He is tasked with meeting the terms of a bailout plan to avert bankruptcy. But with worries that the crisis could spread to other countries, investors are looking for either the European Central Bank or EU governments to commit more capital in order to backstop sovereign bond markets. For the markets to continue to rally, we would need to see market confidence that Italian, Spanish and French bonds are money good, There is likely to be more volatility around the sovereign debt crisis until we get more capital committed to the solution.