The bottom-fishers were hit over the head once again by this horrible bear market. Whoever said "Oversold markets can become even more oversold" sure had it right. The problem with the selling is that it just isn't intense enough to wash out. Measures of extreme sentiment, such as the put/call ratios, are indicating that there are still plenty of folks looking for a bottom, and the media are still full of folks looking for a low.
Sentiment feels negative enough in many ways to be a contrary indicator, but it isn't working. Our forays to the upside are being blasted by flippers, sellers and shorters. Lots of folks are looking for their bounce but no one trusts it.
Financials led the day, but other than that there wasn't much positive. Oil stocks gave up a big gain, and gold, retailers and small-caps were gunned down relentlessly. Breadth finished solidly negative after a brief positive showing early in the day.
One of these days we may even see some surprise news about progress on a bank plan, but for now there are no positive catalysts to bring in the buyers. The only thing we have going for us is that things are so bad they probably can't get much worse, and that isn't a very good recipe for a lasting rally. It's most likely trite to keep stating this, but stay tough.
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