Struggling desperately to link daily news to market moves.

TDAmeritrade has a "news" article entitled, "What exactly to attribute market moves to?".  The short article is as follows:

What Exactly to Attribute Market Moves To? -- Market Talk

Today 3:11 PM ET (Dow Jones)Print

15:11 EDT - It's been hard to discern what piece of news to pin this afternoon's market moves to--and get confirmation or denial of events from Moscow and Kiev at this time of the day. The main Russia-related reports blamed for the market slip are 1) articles about a further troop buildup on Russia's border with Ukraine; 2) comments from Russian officials about organizing a "humanitarian" operation in Ukraine; 3) reports that a Polish official warned of a possible invasion in Ukraine; and 4) a Russian statement, later withdrawn, that it finalized a major oil deal with Iran. The conflicting statements from Russia's energy ministry, confirmed by WSJ reporters in Moscow, highlight concerns Russia will react to Western sanctions by forging major energy deals with Iran. (william.mauldin@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 05, 2014 15:11 ET (19:11 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

The truth is that when the herd is ready to go south, the herd goes south.  The Elliott waves are the best way I know of tracking and predicting herding moves.  It is like an old, experienced tracker saying "when it's hot outside you will find the wildebeest herd likes to take this path down to the watering hole".  If the herd is going to drink water, it will go drink water.  That is not to say that if a gun goes off nearby that it can't distort the herd's movements a bit.  The herd might take another trail or it might pause in its tracks for a while until the excitement wears off but a thirsty herd goes to drink water eventually.  At some point there is no amount of noise or human presence that can keep a terribly thirsty herd from the watering hole.   The more someone tries to scare the herd off, the harder the herd is going to work on ways to go drink.  This is what really moves the markets and not the daily noise.  I mean news.  Check that, I did mean noise when it is coming from main stream sources.

The herd takes news like it wants to take it and it takes non-news like it wants to take it as well.  One day a swarm of flies is completely ignored.  The next day, a fly bites the ass of one of the leaders and the herd stampedes for 10 miles.  But I do admit it is funny watching people try to link every market move to some visible event like this.