On Tuesday, I wrote a blog and a lengthier newspaper article about the widespread bearishness among retail investors, financial advisers and fund managers. The backdrop was a bit perplexing, of course: Amid the bearishness, the S&P 500 was on a six-day winning streak, rising 6.5 per cent. For some readers, no doubt, the gains made the article look a little dated.
But check this out: Bespoke Investment Group on Tuesday conducted a poll among its blog readers, asking them whether they thought the recent stock market correction was over or not ("Would the S&P 500 make a new bull market high before it makes a correction low?"). Turns out, bearishness remains pretty sticky.
Despite a good start to the second quarter earnings season and a nice rally over the past week and a half, only 39 per cent of the 569 respondents believe that the correction is over - a very low number, it seems, given the bullish backdrop of the past several days. That leaves 61 per cent who are convinced that the correction still has room to run.
Bespoke didn't compare this reading to other polls, so it might not be worth much as a scientific reading on market sentiment. Consider it as something to chew on.
David Berman