Bulls Starting To Stir?

It's hardly the roaring bull market of the late ''90's, but stocks have been steadily rising for six weeks, notes CBS News Correspondent Anthony Mason. The Dow Jones industrial average has gained almost 1200 points since March.

Floor trader Susan Green of International Direct says, "The mood is much better. I mean obviously the panic has escaped the market." She adds that investors are relieved the war in Iraq is over. "If you look at most of the indexes, we've retraced back to where we were ... before we went to war. Before the threat of war hit the marketplace."

The Nasdaq is up more than 38 percent from its bear market level in October. The Dow is up almost 20 percent. By most definitions, a 20 percent gain is considered a new bull market.

And, says Mason, after the bear market that brought three straight years of brutal losses, Wall Street is "trying to decipher the first real signs that the bear might be dead."

Arthur Cashin of UBS Paine Webber says, "There are some signs, but there aren't enough to walk out in the woods without a stick in your hands."

Cashin, who has spent 40 years on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, warns this may be a short-lived rally, if corporate profits don't rise and unemployment doesn't fall.

"Many of the traders believe that the next 30-60 days are going to be absolutely critical to the market, to the economy and maybe to the White House," Cashin says. "If we don't get this post-Iraq bounce that everybody from Alan Greenspan down has been talking about, the markets may just roll over along with the economy."

For now, observes Mason, the bear has gone silent. But some Wall Street veterans caution him that it may only be sleeping.