STOCKS MAKE BIG COMEBACK: Here's What You Need To Know

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 15,539.8, -15.7, -0.1%
• S&P 500: 1,689.2, -0.9, -0.0%
• NASDAQ: 3,608.2, +2.9, +0.0%

And now, the top stories:

• The stock market continues to dance around its all time high. Some Wall Street strategists have turned decidedly bearish. Some, like J.P. Morgan's Tom Lee, are becoming increasingly bullish. "With both U.S. and Europe expected to see better growth in [the second half of 2013], we believe the Street will be in a position to raise 2014E EPS," said Lee about stock market profits. "We are raising 2014E EPS to $120 (vs $117) and also raising our YE 2013E S&P 500 Target to 1775 (up 3.5% vs prior 1715)."
• The University of Michigan's closely followed measure of consumer confidence unexpectedly jumped to 85.1 in July, a 6-year high.
• "Rising confidence comes despite surging gas prices throughout the latter half of July," says Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak. "In the first week of the month when the preliminary survey was prepared the price per gallon at the pump fell to $3.47 and has since reached $3.67. We believe that the diffusion of improved payroll data and growing chatter regarding soon-to-end Fed stimulus have boosted consumers’ perceptions of the overall health of the economy."
• Otherwise, it was a pretty quiet day in the markets. Next week promises to be much more interesting. We'll get interest rate announcements from the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of England. We'll also get the July U.S. jobs
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