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We are continuing to see ongoing pessimism among individual investors about
the short-term direction of stock prices [but if you are a contrarian you should bet on a continued rise in stocks despite the continued sense of unease. Let’s take a look at a few charts that tell the story.] Words: 510
So say Charles Rotblut (www.pragcap.com) in edited excerpts from his original article* and Dave Glen in his comments at the end of this post.
Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.munKNEE.com (Your Key to Making Money!), may have edited the article below for length and clarity – see Editor’s Note at the bottom of the page for details. This paragraph must be included in any article re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.
Rotblut goes on to say, in part:
AAII members continue to cast a wary eye toward events in Europe and are concerned about the slowing pace of economic growth here in the United States, the outcome of the U.S. presidential election…and a resolution to the forthcoming expiration of tax cuts and the implementation of spending cuts (the so-called “fiscal cliff”).
In the latest AAII Sentiment Survey for the week ending June 28th:
1. Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, rebounded by 8.5 percentage points to 44.4%.
- This is the 11th time in 12 weeks that bearish sentiment has been above its historical average of 30%.
- The current 8-week streak is the longest since a 14-week stretch from July 21, 2011, through October 20, 2011.
2. Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, fell 4.2 percentage points to 28.7%.
- This is the 7th time in the past 12 weeks that optimism has been below 30%.
- It is also the 13th consecutive week that bullish sentiment has been below its historical average of 39%.
- It is the longest streak since a 14-week stretch from December 20, 2007, through March 20, 2008.
3. Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, fell 4.3 percentage points to 27.0%. The historical average is 31%….
* http://pragcap.com/bearish-sentiment-rebounds (To access the above article please copy the URL and paste it into your browser.)
Small investors aren’t the only one’s turning bearish on equities. Apparently, the persistent negativity is spilling over to Wall Street as well, as sell side analysts become more bearish than they’ve been in 15 years.
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According to Merrill Lynch’s Sell Side Consensus Indicator** that measures Wall Street bullishness on stocks:
- just 49.3% of analysts are currently bullish – a level that hasn’t been seen since 1998 suggesting that sell side strategists are now more bearish on equities than they were at any point during the collapse of the Tech Bubble or the recent Financial Crisis.
- the decline marked the 9th time in 11 months that the indicator has fallen.
Says Merrill Lynch: “Given the contrarian nature of this indicator, we are encouraged by Wall Street’s lack of optimism and the fact that strategists are recommending that investors significantly underweight equities vs. a traditional long-term average benchmark weighting of 60-65%.”
Source: Merrill Lynch
**http://pragcap.com/wall-streets-analysts-are-excessively-bearish (To access the above article please copy the URL and paste it into your browser.)
[You might also find the following commentary/interpretation of interest regarding the Sell Side Concensus Indicator: http://seekingalpha.com/article/700941-best-bullish-signal-in-15-years-what-is-this-indicator (To access the above article please copy the URL and paste it into your browser.)]Dave Glen (www.randomglenings.blogspot.ca) reports in edited excerpts from his original article* Amidst the Gloom, Stocks Continue To Rise that on a price-only basis the S&P 500 declined by 3.9% in the second quarter but it is still up 7.7% for the year. Including dividends, investors in the broader market average are up +9.5% for the year.
If you’re a contrarian you should bet on a continued rise in stocks despite the continued sense of unease.
***http://randomglenings.blogspot.ca/2012/07/amidst-gloom-stocks-continue-to-rise.html (To access the above article please copy the URL and paste it into your browser.)
Editor’s Note: The above article may have been edited ([ ]), abridged (…), and reformatted (including the title, some sub-titles and bold/italics emphases) for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. The article’s views and conclusions are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original article.
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