What will be the next event to drive US Equities either up or down in a sustained trend?

Over the past few weeks, the plight of the major US Equity Indexes have been that of a choppy, highly volatile, two-way market, with little in the form of sustained trends.  Even the latest fallout news regarding the spreading contagion of the subprime debacle, weakness in Housing and potential problems with municipality and bond insurers hasn’t’ been able to deliver the death blow to the Dow Jones, breaking it down below 12,000 once again.  Unfortunately, the major Indexes haven’t managed to muster up any positives to produce a sustainable rally either.

So with earnings news out and high attention to subprime issues and economic factors already taking center stage, what will be the next bout of information that could swing Equities into a medium term bull or bear mode?  Well, with the presidential race quickly narrowing to 2 main candidates over the next couple of weeks, the markets may just wake up and notice what may be in store for the US economy and international policy in 2009.  Once the markets forget the subprime undertones, it could very well be the political picture that could push the markets one way or the other.  Which way you say…the Doc will let you know soon.  But just to give you a hint…let’s just say…it don’t look pretty.