NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Fireworks, baby! Okay maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but hey, we closed up! Volume was actually pretty decent. And the Dow did break 9,000 intraday again, but what's that between friends?

Very nice to close up before the holiday. Shows that folks weren't getting all paranoid and madly dumping stock before the weekend. Hey, traders are humans too (sort of). They just wanted to go home and chill. Peace out. And so after being in some pretty serious negative territory in the morn, stocks rallied late in the session. (Really moved up right at the close!)

The Dow gained 47 to close at 9,055 (had touched 8,900 today!), while the Naz was up 22 to 1,380. This even with AMD reporting lousy numbers -- but hey, AMD always does that! Hey, watch me, Chris Hillman (Is God. Love "Bakersfield Bound." "Way Out West," is new. Anyone know it?), I mean Andy Serwer on CNN and Headline News. Read Loose Change to find out the latest poop on Scooby Doo! Here's wazzup:

STOCKYARD I think we really could see a bit of a rally after the Fourth. I'm not saying it's going to be much of anything long term. In fact we could see more deterioration after that, but I really think we are going to stabilize...

I was getting kind of bummed out on TV this morning and I saw Lou Dobbs in the green room and he told me to take some Prozac! Maybe you're right Lou, maybe you're right. No one is going to do jack on Friday, except beach!...

Man! I had no idea Sun was trading near $4! (Still has a market cap of $15 bil!)....

Airlines very active on Wednesday...Also, is it true that a big player at a major Wall Street firm found out about some wrongdoing, told his superiors about it, was fired and is now looking to sue?...

Also, I wonder how many shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Sam Waksal got at that company's IPO, and whether he flipped 'em on the first day? Wanna bet? Also, you have to wonder if Martha will be off her CBS "Early Show" next week and the following week and the following week. Get it?...

Big winners today: Home Depot, H-P, Intel, and Oracle. Hey, remember "Sweet City Woman"? It was done by "The Stampeders," Calgary's best country rock band ever!

IN DEFENSE OF AOL (Yes Scooby sucks, but is this latest bashing on target?) From a man in the know: "A few facts might help. AOL Time Warner will deliver EBITDA of around $10 billion this year.

Now, I know that EBITDA is widely discredited but look at cash flows. This year, AOL Time Warner will deliver free cash flow of around $2.5 billion. That 'free cash flow' number does not include the ridiculous $7.5 billion cash outlay to buy 50 percent of AOL Europe from Bertelsmann (which explains the surge in borrowings in 1Q 02) but it does include the interest payments on our $25 billion of debt and it does include $4 billion of capital expenditure, primarily by our cable company. And, glory be, AOL Time Warner will have real 'EPS' net income type earnings this year of approaching $2 billion.

This is not a company whose assets are 'near worthless'. I mean, you've got the number one ISP, the number two cable company, the number one publishing company, the number one movie studio, the only game in town in premium cable networks, one of strongest basic cable networks and one of the music majors. That's an impressive constellation of media assets.

All the interest cover ratios and other stuff you might want to study are well within the limits of what is reasonable. Compare and contrast with the cable industry. Forget Adelphia. Take a look at Comcast once it's bought AT&T. That's a company with scary ratios and bad cash flow dynamics." Interesting. AOL rallied a bit today. (AOL Time Warner is the parent of CNN/Money.)

Leon Harris and I are talking this morning, see, and I'm asking him about Georgia having low gas prices and he says its because they have very low state taxes on gasoline, but he said the taxes on alcohol are some of the highest in the nation. Hmm, so they want you drive and they don't want you to drink!...

This from Vir: "Rumor has it, each character in 'Scooby-Doo' is based on stereotypical traits of students at UMass, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Amherst College, and Hampshire. Freddy is obviously from Amherst College...he's a pretty boy. Daphne is obviously Mt. Holyoke...she's a rich girl. Thelma is QUITE obviously from Smith college. Shaggy of course is from Hampshire college...hippie. And Scooby is from UMass (a.k.a. ZOOmass)...no explanation necessary."...

From Laura Z: "We need to deal with this." -- Bud Selig, the current Commissioner of Baseball.... What the hell does that mean, Laura?... Hey, I'll be out of the office until 7/15, be good to the others and help the market go up!

Andrew Serwer is editor-at-large of Fortune magazine.

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