Until today I had been surprised individual investor sentiment was holding up at an elevated level. However, with the AAII Sentiment Survey release this morning, for the week ending 4/22/2020, bullish sentiment fell 10 percentage points to 24.9%. This is the lowest bullishness reading since October 10, 2020 when bullish sentiment was reported at 20.3%. A majority of the formally bullish respondent...

It is not surprising company earnings revisions have been mostly downside revisions with most of the country/consumers sitting at home. What is noteworthy though is the upside to downside earnings revision ratio tends to bottom near equity market bottoms. During the 2008/2009 financial crisis, the revision ratio bottomed in late February and the S&P 500 Index bottomed a little over two months late...

Investors and the market are entering peak earnings season and with futures down this morning, it seems investors may be facing a buy the rumor sell the news type of market. The crash in oil prices, with NYMEX crude down 35% to $11.77 per barrel, is adding to the negative market sentiment. Up until this peak earnings period for the first quarter, the S&P 500 Index rose over 28% off the March 23 lo...

From February 19 to March 23 the S&P 500 Index went from trading at a record high to being down 30.75% for the year, all in the span of 23 trading days. The speed of the decline caught most investors by surprise. In the fifteen trading days since the March 23 low though, the Index is up 27.2% and regained 608 of the 1,148 points lost in the contraction. In spite of the strong recovery, a majority ...

Of course March 23 is not even a month in the rear-view mirror, but the S&P 500 Index is up over 23% since the low on that date. Some have commented the market will retest that market low before achieving new highs while others say the Fed's intervention minimizes the likelihood of a retest. As time moves further past the March 23 day, it seems "the no retest" chorus is sounding more probable. Bec...

The first quarter was an unprecedented one as the S&P 500 Index decline was the fastest 30%+ sell-off ever. The market ultimately fell 33.9% from February 19 to its low on March 23, just 23 trading days. This occurred on the back of a strong 2019 where the S&P 500 Index was up 31.5% for the year. A strong start was underway for 2020 with the S&P 500 Index up 5.1% through February 19. The COVID-19 ...

Small businesses (less than 500 employees) account for around 50% of total private payrolls. The broad virus initiated and widely mandated "stay at home" orders across most states are having an extreme negative impact on small businesses, all business for that matter. In today's NFIB Small Business Optimism release, the Optimism Index fell 8.1 points to 96.4, the largest decline in the survey's hi...

One factor we track on a periodic basis falls into the investor sentiment category. There are a number of sentiment measures one can evaluate on the institutional and individual investor level. The one that is weighing on our minds currently is the fact the individual investor bullish sentiment level has not reached a level one would expect in a market like the recent one. When the S&P 500 Index i...

My blogging has been rather light the past few weeks as most of my effort has been focused on our clients' and reaching out to them during these uncertain times. I mostly write blog articles during the evenings and on the weekends and my wife has been hearing me say, "I want to get a blog post done."  So much to write about, but so much going on. With Ohio continuing under a 'stay at home' order, ...

Blogging has been light given the fluid and volatile market environment resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 virus situation. Our firm continues to reach out to clients to provide insight and information they need during this unusual time. An outcome of our communication with clients and HORAN's broad reach across health care, investments, insurance and business in general, the firm has established...