A sharp jump in "productivity" (apparently, it is the biggest surge in two years) lifted stocks Tuesday. So, people have been working real hard in US, I guess :-)

The real boost came from Labor Department's announcement that the nation's productivity rose 4.7 percent over the summer and Investors welcomed this with a great enthusiasm, inturn driving up the market.

But behold before you make that jump into the stock market. Read on..

"There's still an element of the self-fulfilling prophecy here, in that you're seeing people jump into a rally just because it's the end of the year and we're supposed to have a rally," said Chris Johnson, manager of quantitative analysis at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "I wouldn't be surprised if we're lollygagging around here until the end of the year."

The market followed a pattern it has repeated many times since its October low: Gains early in the day were eroded by sharp selling before the close. ;-) So watch your step.