Below is a list of the most read blog articles in each month during 2017. One interesting commonality for some of the top posts is the fact the ones focusing on investor sentiment tend to gain higher levels of readership. Sentiment is one important market factor we monitor on a fairly regular basis. Secondly, some prior articles seem to remain applicable as 2018 is set to begin. For example, artic...
In the few weeks after the 2016 presidential election, individual investor bullish sentiment spiked to near 50%. Over the course of the next five months though, bullish sentiment trended lower to a year low of 23.85%. From March through April the market had some volatile periods that may have influenced investor sentiment; however, true to form this year, the market never experienced a prolonged o...
Four trading days left until the calendar turns to 2018 and one will be able to determine the list of stocks that will comprise the Dow Dogs of 2018. The Dow Dogs were laggards in the first half of the year, but have made up significant ground in the second half of 2017. To date the Dow Dogs of 2017 have outperformed the S&P 500 Index on a total return basis due to the Dogs higher dividend yield. ...
When the NFIB Small Business Optimism reading for December 2016 was announced in January, the December reading jumped 7.4 points to 105.8. At that time the optimism reading was the fifth highest reading recorded by NFIB. Prior instances of strong optimism readings were followed by positive stock market returns in the subsequent twelve months. NFIB's Small Business Optimism report last week closed ...
One of my more regular topics that I write about on the blog from time to time is an update on sentiment measures, both individual and business. Sentiment might be viewed as the third leg of a stool, with the other two being the economy and business financial health or earnings growth. Without positive sentiment from businesses and investors, the economy is more likely to see lackluster growth. Wh...
Much has been written about the stock market's advance since the end of the financial crisis in 2009. Without getting into the valuation issues, as I have written about that for maybe too many times, the recent return, nearly past two years, has been pretty remarkable and has occurred with a very low level of volatility.Business and consumer optimism is high, institutional investor optimism is hig...
It seems a day does not go by where the market's valuation is a front and center topic of discussion. Suffice it to say that I believe, and have written as such recently, that the market does not correct simply because it may be trading at an elevated valuation. Although market declines or pullbacks have been few and far between, when the next pullback occurs, a factor in the the magnitude of the ...
Today the American Association of Individual Investors reported results of their Sentiment Survey for the week ending 12/13/2017. The report shows individual investor bullish sentiment jumped 8.1 percentage points to 45.0%. Most of the jump in bullish sentiment was a result of a 6.1 percentage point decline in bearish sentiment. This has resulted in the bull/bear spread widening to 16.9%, the thir...
Sentiment for both consumers and small businesses continues to soar. Today the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index was reported at 107.5. I highlighted the surge in consumer sentiment at the end of November.NFIB notes in its report,"Not since the roaring Reagan economy has small business optimism been as high as it was in November, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)...
It seems like an eternity since the S&P 500 Index experienced a pullback of more than 5%. In fact, the last greater than 5% pullback occurred over a year ago during the period of June 8, 2016 to June 27, 2016. This lack of downside volatility has taken place during a nearly uninterrupted increase in the market that began in February last year. Additionally, the market advance since the end of the ...