It's crazy, but we're still in a bull market.
But I'm not buying.
I'm holding, because the transportation stocks are refusing to make new all time highs. Plus, share buybacks are padding corporate balance sheets, making it look like they are healthy.
The reality is that while the supply side of the economy looks strong as evidenced by the Dow Industrial stocks, the demand side of the economy looks weak as evidenced by the Dow Transportation stocks.
Factsec released documents that show S&P500 companies are spending oodles of money on buying back shares, which makes their stocks look stronger. I don't know the real reason why they are buying their own shares, but I know the result: a reinforced uptrend in a weak market.
http://www.factset.com/websitefiles/PDFs/buyback/buyback_6.23.16
Essentially, the market seems to be climbing a wall of worry. This is happening at the top of an already extended bull market.
Overall, the picture doesn't look great for stocks. But I'm not 100% convinced this bull market is over and until the primary trend gives a clearer signal of changing, I'm going to continue holding.
In other news, Gold is doing spectacularly well now. That's interesting in and of itself. Stocks are making new all time highs, but not unanimously, and the traditional safe haven assets are experiencing influxes of capital while interest rates remain close to zero. Bonds are paying next to nothing.
It's a messed up time to be an investor. It makes me think of doing something else with my hard earned money, like buying or starting a business of some sort, or buying real estate.
