The move to 1400 in the S&P’s has certainly changed the sentiment of the individual investor as measured by AAII. On the week, Bulls rose 6 pts to 36.5, the highest since April 5th while Bears fell to 27.4 from 34.9, the lowest since March 29th. We’re still far however from the extremes in the early part of the year when Bulls got above 50 and the Bears were below 20.
Hopes for more easing in China sent the Shanghai index up for a 5th day to a 3 week high after CPI slowed to the slowest pace since Jan ’10 and retail sales and IP both rose less than expected. CPI though has likely bottomed as retail food prices are about to head much higher. The CRB ‘food stuff’ index closed yesterday at just shy of its highest level since Nov. Also, the JOC industrial commodity price index closed at the highest since May. Australia said job gains in July were better than expected with an unemployment rate of 5.2%. Indonesia, South Korea and Japan all left monetary policy unchanged overnight.
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