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Investors Intelligence - Latest Sentiment Readings on Stocks
With continued volatility in stock markets, today King World News wanted share, with our global readers, key portions from the latest Investors Intelligence report: “Markets ended slightly lower for the week ending 3-Feb. The losses were tiny with much of the blame falling on the failure of Greece to accept the EU bailout terms. During the week the DJ Industrials followed the NASDAQ Comp and a few other averages above their 2011 highs. The S&P 500 weekly high was just below there. The advisors commented positively on that action and additionally noted expectations that a Greek deal will be done. They also noted the ongoing US economic recovery as showing no sign of faltering.”
© 2012 by King World News®. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
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February 16, 2012
Investors Intelligence continues:
“The result was another gain for the bulls to 54.8% after they jumped to 52.1% a week ago. Both are above their Jan/Dec readings around 50% and highs since Apr-11 when the bulls peaked at 57.3%. That time-frame was when the NYSE averages were achieving peaks that are only now being tested. The latest data is very close to levels we consider dangerous as most major market tops usually occur after the bulls move into the 55%-60% range. Even then they can still move higher so we then watch for them to reverse direction and diminish in number.
The bears were again lower at 25.8% after dropping to 28.7% last time. The bears are now falling after they spent 11-weeks within 0.5% of 30%. It took the index moves above year-ago highs to finally convince them as they held fairly steady from late Nov through late Jan even as many indexes rallied about 15%. The remaining bears say the rally has come too far too fast and is not supported by the weaker recent quarterly results. Some also express skepticism regarding the recovery, questioning the sustainability of the low-rate Fed policy. Others note the still horrible housing market with comments that Obama's latest mortgage bailout would do little to reverse that. The bearish reading is close to the mid-to-low 20%s figures that also occur with market highs.
The difference between the bulls and bears was +29.0%, a large advance from +23.4% and +19.1% the prior two issues. This is the widest positive spread in over nine months. The new figure just exceeded the +28.0% reading shown in July. It remains below the +40.0% difference last April, so a top is getting very close. A spread above 30% would suggest danger for a rising market. In contrast it was -11.9% at the start of October. This is a contrarian indicator so wide negative spreads [below zero] are signs of low risk for new positions. High readings [above zero] signal increasing risk.”
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© 2012 by King World News®. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. However, linking directly to the blog page is permitted and encouraged.
Eric King
