S&P 500

Excerpted from Doug Noland's Credit Bubble Bulletin,

Another unsettled week for global markets. Japan’s Nikkei equities index rallied 6.5%. Italian bank stocks surged 10%, with the Europe STOXX 600 Bank Index up 8.1%. Germany’s DAX equities index rallied 4.5%, with Spanish stocks up 5.0% and Italian 4.3%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Financials index surged 5.9%. The EM market rally continued. U.S. bank stocks jumped 7.0%. A Friday evening Bloomberg headline: “Rough Week for Shorts as Banks Send S&P 500 to Four-Month High.”

Submtted by C.Jay Engel via The Austrian View blog,

“Like champagne, bull markets remove inhibitions.” –James Grant

Via NorthmanTrader.com,

Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

I noted in yesterday’s post that individuals, while still fully invested in the financial markets, are saying they are extremely bearish on the market. To wit:

There has been some confusion in recent weeks about one unexplained aspect of the rising market: just who is buying?

The reason for the confusion is not only the previously documented buyer strike by the smart money (hedge funds, institutions and private clients), which as we reported a few days have sold stocks for 11 consecutive weeks.

Then last night, citing the latest EPFR data, BofA reported that retail equity investors are now also "risk-off" following $6.2 billion in equity outflows from all regions.