WASHINGTON — Investment strategists were looking for Big Meaning in the stock market’s wild ride last week. The question of the moment: Does the extraordinary turbulence — a stunning Fed-inspired surge Tuesday, followed by a plunge the next day, then another powerful rally after that — suggest that a threshold has been crossed in the market’s shakeout?

A technical research analyst for Merrill Lynch, Mary Ann Bartels, said that Tuesday was the second day in a week when at least 90% of all common stocks that changed price did so with a gain. At the same time, the trading volume of shares moving higher accounted for at least 90% of all volume. The last two times a similar pattern occurred were in July 2006 and November 1987. Ms. Bartels said: “Both were significant market bottoms.”

According to a Citi Investment Research strategy report, the market still faces a conflict between two contradictory forces: Stocks will look very inexpensive after their prolonged battering, but their allure may be tarnished by substantial downgrades in analysts’ earnings expectations. “We think that valuations should win out (just) over the course of the year,” the Citi report said, “but that economic and earnings headwinds may mean that markets may struggle to find a floor in the first half of the year.” Volatility will persist, Citi said, but the Fed’s easing and more realistic earnings expectations will help stocks’ performance in the second half of the year.

The president of Yardeni Research, Edward Yardeni, noted that the Fed’s easing so far hasn’t brought the desired end to the credit crisis and that the economy now looks as if it is slipping into recession. He pointed out that since 1970, the Fed has embarked on 13 rate-lowering cycles. On average, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 9.5% six months after the first cut in the federal funds rate. This time, the S&P is down 12.4%.

“Clearly, investors are becoming increasingly concerned that the Fed is pushing on a string,” Mr. Yardeni wrote. “Such concerns have typically made the best market bottoms for buying stocks, unless it’s different this time.” Mr. Yardeni is betting that the Fed’s moves will revive the credit markets.