Bulls Ignore Economic Indicators
David Brown submits:
If the bulls had been paying attention to the economic indicators reported last week, you’d assume the market would be down substantially by now. The fact is, however, that the S&P 500 is just down about -0.4% for the past calendar week, and Monday it was up over a full percent. Obviously, the bulls didn’t see the surprising drop in Consumer Confidence, which fell to 46.0 from 56.6 in January, its lowest reading since early last year. Moreover, the lesser known Present Situation Index fell to 19.4, its lowest level in 27 years (which was in February 1983 when it was at 17.5).
The bulls also seemed to have missed a couple of other negative numbers: New Home Sales, 309K instead of 360K and Initial Jobless Claims, 496K vs. 460K. And their heads were buried somewhere other than The Wall Street Journal this morning when the stream of negative numbers continued: Personal Income, 0.1% vs. an expected 0.4%; Construction Spending, down 0.6%; and the ISM Manufacturing Index for February, 56.5 rather than the expected 57.9.
Investing, Long Term Investment, stock market | admin March 2, 2010
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