The Stock Market Might Rise Today After All

President Barack Obama and the media have been hoping for weeks that the stock market would crash to teach those extremist Tea Party Republicans a lesson about imposing fiscal discipline on the nation.

Here was NBC’s Chuck Todd yesterday:

Tomorrow, the markets take over as the driver of a deal

— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) October 15, 2013

But markets do not always behave the way liberal pundits think they should (or conservative ones, for that matter). I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that markets might not crash today, regardless of the fate of the debt ceiling fight, because Wall Street does not believe the U.S. will default even after the Oct. 17 deadline and because there are many other factors that affect stock prices. Such as profits, for example:

Bank of America’s Earnings Surge on Improved Credit

Results also helped by loan growth and record deposit balances.

By SAABIRA CHAUDHURI 

Updated Oct. 16, 2013 7:50 a.m. ET

Bank of America Corp.’s BAC -0.07%  third-quarter profit surged as the banking giant benefited from sharply improved credit quality that helped offset weak fixed income and mortgage banking revenue.

Revenues were weaker than expected, so there’s that, but the fact that markets have pretty much done their own thing over the past few weeks should tell us something about the disconnect between the political media and economic reality. The fact that both the president and the press have been rooting for a stock market drop should also tell us something about those who accuse others of “party before country.”