It appears Bank of America's high net worth private clients (who together with hedge funds and institutional make up the so-called "smart money" investor category) are not the only ones who have been quietly offloading stocks.
Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,
While the robo-traders play tag with the chart points, it is worth considering how it will all end. After all, at today’s close the broad market (S&P 500) was valued at 24.3X LTM earnings per share. That is, valuations are in the nosebleed section of history, but financial history has tumbled into the sub-basement of future possibilities.
One day after stocks were this close from hitting new all time highs on what have been either ok earnings, if looking at non-GAAP data, or atrocious earnings, based on GAAP, and where any oil headline is now immediately translated as bullish by the oil algos, so far futures are relatively flat, while European stocks were at their moments ago in anticipation of the latest ECB announcement due out in just one hour. However, unlike last month's "quad-bazooka", this time the market expects far less from Draghi.
While trying to make sense of the "market" seems like a lost cause today more than ever, and it certainly led Bloomberg's Richard Breslow to flip out on Monday, here is Breslow again, stoically trying to uncover the fundamental logic in what has devolved to nothing more than carefully calculated central banker verbal outbursts (and in some cases, actions) and the corresponding pre-programmed algorithmic reactions to a flurry of headlines. Which, incidentally, is precisely his lament today: that trading has devolved to doing noting more than reacting to flashing red headlines.
While it is debatable if this is the "most hated bull market in history" (which as Jesse Felder explained quite well recently it isn't, and even if it is, it is simply because every uptick is on the back of more artificial stimulus and no reflection of actual organic growth and fundamentals), it certainly is the most entertaining one, thanks to headlines such as this one from Yahoo Finance.
More from the author, who may or may not have mastered sarcasm to an art form: