Wait a second, you mean it can do down, too? You mean that sometimes the disappointments matter? I thought we we're in stock market Camelot where there's a legal limit to the decline here!
Here's the deal. We can play pin-the-tail-on-the-selloff. Housing starts not so hot. Jobless claims nothing to write home about. AT&T (T) disappointed. No Greece deal.
Whatever.
But the truth is that we've been up so much that the exuberance was getting a little irrational. We need to see a selloff to get rid of the Johnny-come-latelies who just started buying, the people who waited until Caterpillar (CAT) was up 20% to come in and buy, the people who think that Wells Fargo (WFC) is not allowed to go down and that Bank of America (BAC) should be at $10.
I don't expect anything big here on the downside. We have three business days left of a glorious month, and I believe that mutual and hedge-fund buyers will step in to preserve their gains. They have to. Some of their longevity may depend on it, particularly those firms that suffered mightily from an overweight in tech and financials.
I don't like markets that are parabolic. They get crushed in the end. I like stair-step markets.
Today feels like the flat part of the stairs.
That's where the stability comes in.
I like it.
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