Six trading days remain in May, which begs the question if this year is a “Sell in May and go away” scenario. I don’t think that it is. 

Sir John Templeton eloquently defined a bull market. He said, “Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria.” 

I recently observed that the Russell 2000 Growth Index seemed to be in a good bottoming pattern and we are now seeing it beginning to break out above that base formation. I find that encouraging for the outlook for the market. 

It seems that the major indices are tracking pretty closely with their shot-term moving averages, which isn’t all bad as for many weeks they’ve been in a trading range. 

The DJIA has been relegated to the irrelevant category with its performance year to date, and I think it’s a reflection of how the market is behaving — that there are certain stocks that aren’t participating… 

For months now there has been a steady drone of bearish forecasts, if not dire outlooks for the stock market, based on expectations that the economy was headed for recession. While that might still be the case… 

The very fact that the stock market seems lodged in a limited trading range would seem to reflect pedestrian technicals and a relatively listless trend. But I don’t see that as the case at all…

It may be subtle, but I think that the 1st quarter earnings season is having a generally positive impact on the stock market. 

I think the market gets good technical grades for its performance last week after withstanding the cumulative challenges of the Fed’s rate hike, the ongoing banking worries and the continuing chatter about recession. 

I didn’t discern any real surprises in yesterday’s Fed statement following their widely anticipated decision to raise rates by 25 basis points. Perhaps one of the angles might have been…