Bullish Sentiment Remains Strong

Barring any major downturn at the end of this week, the S&P 500 and Wilshire 500 indexes will enjoy their tenth straight weekly increase. As a result, investor sentiment continues to be positive with bullish sentiment above its long-term average for the ninth straight week.

Overall, the market seems to be responding positively to the wave of corporate earnings announcements. Only time will tell what the ramifications of the mid-term elections will be for the economy and the stock market. However, the economic numbers are still pointing to a long recovery. On the housing front, there appears to be a reversal in the recent gains in home prices. In fact, Fiserv, a market analytics company, has scaled back its home price projections—in February, it forecast national price gains of about 4% through the end of 2011, but now the company is predicting a 7.1% drop in prices between June 30, 2010, and June 30, 2011. Also, the number of people seeking jobless claims reversed course after two weeks of declines, calling into question whether declining unemployment is sustainable. Hoping to jumpstart the economy, the Federal Reserve announced a $600 billion bond buyback plan, which would lower interest rates.

Results as of November 3, 2010:

Bullish: 48.2%
Neutral: 22.0%
Bearish: 29.8%

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Long-Term Average and Extreme Values

Bullish:

 Average: 38.9%, Max: 75.0% (1/6/2000), Min: 12.0% (11/16/1990)

Neutral:

 Average: 30.7%, Max: 62.0% (6/3/1988), Min: 7.7% (10/9/2008)

Bearish:

 Average: 30.3%, Max: 70.3% (3/5/2009), Min: 6.0% (8/21/1987)