Quote from scriabinop23:
for precisely that reason. the weakest in 17 quarters means that strengthening will come. look at home builders 4q for evidence of market psychology at its twisted. At the same time, housing permabears like you and me were killed (temporarily).
the markets rise when people buy. markets drop when people sell. the correlation between buying and selling and economic health can be a transient one at best. Last year, if you look at the charts, home builders were decimated on similar worries in a different part of the (same housing downturn) cycle. Furthermore, oil was already ticking past $70, acting as an inflationary pressure with relatively (recently at least) unprecedented negative future effects on the horizon. Now some of that pressure is abated, and slow earnings this quarter were expected all along. What about 08 and 09 earnings ?? Thats more important.