Nobody Likes a Bear

I can't believe how busy things have been for me. The whipsaw nature of the market has kept my attention as it just grinds sideways. The SPX has had trouble overtaking resistance near 1212 while the "big test" is the annual high near 1218. Meanwhile, the COMP/NDX have been distinctly lagging...

One - okay two - posts from my blog have remained near the front of my mind. It started when I read a Wall Street Journal - "A Prominent Wall Street Bear Calls It Quits".

The article focused on bearish on REITs analyst who is retiring, but what caught my attention was a comment from the chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer, Michael Metz, who noted how tough it is to be a bear on Wall Street. He pointed out that the Street's job is sell stocks and that being a bear is a no win situation from their perspective.

That spurred me to some quick numbers that on Wall Street ratings from Zacks. I pulled a large group of stocks (the types of stocks that make up the SPX, DJIA and NDX) and compiled their ratings:

• 43 percent were either "buy" or "strong buy"
• 48 percent were "holds"
• 9 percent were either "sell" or "strong sell"

In my blog I said this was food for thought and I am still chewing on the implications...