The 'Hated' Stock Market Rally

By vchal @ Shutterstock.com

Do investors even believe this stock market? Despite reaping the benefits of the second longest bull market on record, investors seem to hate the rally. Wall Street Journal reporters Akane Otani and Chris Dieterich report:

If You’re Serious, Sign Up for My Email. But Only If You’re Serious.

Rather than celebrating this wealth-generating machine, individual investors have expressed in multiple surveys just how little enthusiasm they have for this stock market. For years, analysts have described an “unloved” or even “hated” stock rally, where prices defiantly rise despite one of the weakest U.S. economic recoveries on record, Washington’s policy sclerosis and geopolitical flashpoints from the Greek debt crisis and Brexit to North Korea’s nuclear threat.

“It is the most disliked bull market of my career,” said John Fox, chief investment officer at Fenimore Asset Management. “No one is excited. This is not like 1999 and 2000, where you went to a bar and CNBC was on TV.”

Survey data indicate that American stock ownership is retreating. Sixty-two percent of Americans reported owning equities, on average, between the fall of the dot-com bubble and the onset of the global financial crisis, between 2001 and 2008, according to a Gallup survey from early 2017. That number shrunk to 54% during the current bull market, from 2009 to 2017.

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.