David Fuller's view Some people say they like a good worry. Well, investors have been spoiled for choice this year, in terms of problems, which have a disconcerting habit of arriving in bunches.

To mention a few, we have Europe's sovereign debt and banking crises; there are widespread doubts over the euro's survival prospects; Euroland's GDP growth remains weak, Germany excepted. The UK economy has inflation but not growth and this week we have witnessed what I will describe politely as the 'yobbo spring'. The US government's debt continues to balloon; unemployment remains high; double-dip recession beckons and Congress is not functioning like a pleasant Tea Party. China's rapid growth is seen as a train wreck. Helped by QE2, inflation has soared in most of the growth economies. Central banks in China, India and Brazil have steadily tightened their monetary policies.

And gold - that gleaming monitor of all that is excessive in the fiat world - recently soared even higher than "safe" Treasury bonds.

Adding to the drama, high-frequency terminator machines, so loved by the exchanges for their 24-hour a day contributions to turnover, churned markets more than ever.

Seeing an element of black humour in some of this is an antidote for stress, leading to my questions:

What matters most in all this, and what of today's action?

Europe arguably remains the main focal point of investor concerns. This is reflected by the very weak, albeit somewhat oversold Euro STOXX Bank Index. Additionally, the European Overnight Index Swaps Spread is rising, signalling that European banks are becoming more reluctant to lend to each other. It is now at its highest level since 2Q 2009, although still well below 2008's levels. Further gains would indicate liquidity problems.

We know the seriousness of Europe's sovereign debt and banking problems which have been widely discussed. I would not underestimate them but I think we can now see the means for containing this long-term crisis and also restoring some confidence in the euro.

On a needs must basis, countries sharing the single currency show signs of moving towards the fiscal union which is essential for the euro's long-term survival, in my view. Once fully committed to this path, and the sooner the better in terms of stability, the euro region crisis should be past its nadir.

Lower commodity prices, not least for crude oil and staple food commodities such as corn, wheat, soybeans and rough rice are a precondition for a significant stock market rally, in my view. We have seen some welcome respite, evidenced by the Continuous Commodity Index (Old CRB). However, we know only too well how quickly this can change, due to the secular bull market for this sector so often discussed by Fullermoney, plus a growing preference among some investors for real assets. A break in the progression of lower rally highs for the Old CRB would indicate that demand for resources had regained the upper hand.

Clear respite from commodity price inflation would enable growth economies led by Brazil, China and India to not only halt their programmes of progressive monetary tightening but to reverse them partially. This would be bullish for their stock markets.

Economists are citing an increasing number of indicators suggesting that the US economy is likely to slip back into recession (see article below). Even if it avoids the technical definition, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP, possibly with the help of creative statistics, it probably feels like a double-dip recession for many Americans.

Corporate profits have been very impressive for many successful US multinational companies leveraged to the global economy, despite slower GDP growth following this year's spike in commodity prices. We still like those companies for the longer term but clearly there is scope for profit downgrades over the next few months. If so, this could be the main factor extending what has been a comparatively short, sharp bear market to date for most of the better performing stock markets since 2009.

Today, we are seeing what I sometimes refer to as an all-change moment for markets. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 have led a stock market rebound; bonds and gold have fallen back although the latter avoided a key day reversal; the soaring Swiss franc has fallen back after the SNB said it might peg the currency to the euro. There is a good chance that we will see some further retracement of these technically overstretched trends.

Explosive and usually brief short covering rallies are a characteristic of bear markets for equities. Surveying lots of stock market indices and individual equities, Eoin and I think that too much technical damage has occurred, - much of it recently - for shares to sustain more than short-term bounces at this time.

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