Where the Scared Money Goes…
I’ve assembled the below images to give you a snapshot of where the averages are in our trek toward recovery.
Folks, we shouldn’t be surprised if the numbers continue to swing back and forth.
From my perspective it’s highly likely we’ll end the summer awfully close to where we started.
And, yes, with the NASDAQ front-running the entire market it should also be "the hardest hit" on corrective waves.
That's the bad news about being a front-runner, you usually get hit by the first arrows:
The Fog of Fear
Yep, fear remains just below the surface - with massive inflows into cash and bonds from stocks.
So, how big is the “scared money rush” into bonds?
Well, the 10-year started last week at a cool P/E of 158 (0.63% yield).
It ended the week at a blistering P/E of 170 (0.58% yield).
So, if I told you that the P/E of the stock market went up 12 points in a week - ever - what would you think?
The Hidden Good News
History strongly suggests that these elements are not what tops are made of.
In fact, market tops sound exactly the opposite to what we’re hearing.
Real tops are never referred to as "bubbles" and come with massive inflows into stocks. There’s little money in the banks and all magazine covers hold stories about how Mrs. Jones of Main Street USA is making a killing in cloud stocks as she ferries the kids to the bus-stop for school.
And this sure doesn’t sound like that main street just now, folks.
Keep that in mind when you look at the latest sentiment data below:
From the Top Down...
Look at the two- blue dotted lines on the top two charts – the Bulls and Bears.
Try hard to erase your feelings about what is going on all around us in real-time and streaming at us over every media channel possible.
That stuff all sounds bad.
Instead, notice how seldom in the past there has been both “less bulls” and “more bears.”
Take a good long look.
You’ll see it only happens in exceedingly small pockets of time, collectively speaking.
Every other time we’ve seen this somewhat unique "stretch point" in these readings has been at times when it was a good idea to be an owner of the future in the US, and not a seller of the future in the US.
And one last thing - the data AAII Bullish Sentiment smoothed into an 8-week moving average:
Notice how few times the current readings have been breached lower.
The last time was "Brexit" and the last election cycle.
Remember all that garbage?
Don’t fall for all that again.