• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Doug Kass
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Jim Cramer
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • Trifecta Stocks
  1. Home
  2. / Markets

The Bears Yearn While the Market Churns

There is tremendous underperformance by most money managers and they are anxious to make up ground before the end of the year.
By JAMES "REV SHARK" DEPORRE
Nov 19, 2019 | 07:10 AM EST
Stocks quotes in this article: HD

The stock market has had two major themes lately. The first is very strong underlying support that has prevented even a minor pullback from gaining momentum. The second theme is endless predictions that the market is on the brink of disaster.

Predictions of doom are nothing new, but they have become shrill lately as the bears battle a market that refused to undergo even a minor correction. The pessimistic arguments are very intelligent and compelling and they seem even more intelligent and compelling the longer the market ignores them.

At some point, the bearish narrative will matter, but the bears are too anticipatory and are unable to effectively time when all those fundamental negatives will suddenly matter. The lack of effective timing dooms us to constant repletion of the menu of negatives on a daily basis.

There are basically two positives holding up the market right now. A friendly Fed, which has helped to provide a flood of cheap capital, and hope that a China trade deal will eventually be announced. The bears have been helpless in dealing with those two issues.

A third issue that has helped to hold the market aloft is sentiment. There is tremendous underperformance by most money managers and they are anxious to make up ground before the end of the year. That pressure is accentuated by fear of missing out as the market refuses to pull back.

Ironically, the fear of missing out has many bulls rooting for a pullback just like their bearish friends. The easiest way to produce relative performance is to buy significant dips and then ride the buys back up to new highs. Some corrective action is exactly what most bulls are hoping for, so they can put money to work and outperform their benchmarks.

The market's response to these pressures is classic. It is frustrating both bulls and bears by doing very little. The S&P 500 is churning near all-time highs. It isn't producing any buyable dips and it isn't producing strong momentum to chase. Stock picking is poor and the action is downright boring at times since it is so flat.

That is the setup we start with this morning. Once again, there are headlines that hopes for a China-U.S. trade deal are bolstering the indices, but weak guidance from Home Depot (HD) has caught some market players by surprise and will be fodder for the bears looking for negatives to exploit.

My game plan remains the same. I will stay focused on closely managing existing positions and looking for some new buys. My cash levels are already quite high due to a few attractive stock picks but I see no reason to anticipate a sudden market collapse.

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

At the time of publication, Rev Shark had no positions in any of the securities mentioned.

TAGS: Earnings | Indexes | Investing | Markets | Stocks | Trading | U.S. Equity

More from Markets

The Best Trading Advice I've Ever Given

James "Rev Shark" DePorre
Dec 7, 2019 10:00 AM EST

The benefits of keeping your accounts as close to highs as possible are obvious but how do we actually do this?

Jobs and Sentiment Provide Solid Backbeat for Next Week's 'Dance'

James "Rev Shark" DePorre
Dec 6, 2019 4:37 PM EST

In one week we should know whether the Dec. 15 tariffs will increase as planned.

A Growing Dividend Stock With a Sweet 3.3% Yield

Bob Ciura
Dec 6, 2019 3:19 PM EST

Investors typically look to food stocks for stable profits and reliable dividends year in and year out.

Is the This Start of the Topping Process?

Mark Sebastian
Dec 6, 2019 2:57 PM EST

These calls should be an interesting play over the next few days.

Jim Cramer: Let's Win the Trade War With China

Jim Cramer
Dec 6, 2019 11:18 AM EST

If the Chinese really want a substantive deal, they must renounce their ways and start playing fair with our nation.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 01:06 PM EST CAROLYN BORODEN

    MRK and LVS Targets Coming Up

    View Chart » View in New Window »  LVS View C...
  • 12:01 PM EST BOB LANG

    Rolling up Apple

    just the other day we added some apple calls on th...
  • 12:24 PM EST GARY BERMAN

    Fibocall: The SPX-Cash Long-Term View

    You will hear from many analysts on TV screaming t...
  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2019 TheStreet, Inc., 14 Wall Street, 15th Fl, NY, NY 10005

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login