Good corporate results have boosted the market today but there is still an open-ended question whether we are just seeing a bull rally in a bear market.
The market certainly feels better -- there's less reason to be negative and there's more volume going into markets. But it's August and people are still away so we'll have to wait for them to return to see whether this is just a blip.
The consumer related stocks coming off is only to be expected, given the news on the consumer that we've been getting from Europe and the U.S..
Going forward, I'm a lot more comfortable with things like telecom operators, because I think the forecasts in that area have come down significantly, whereas in other areas like some of the cyclical sectors, their forecasts probably need to be cut.
The market saw through the Fed's inspiring comments about the economic recovery because it moved to an easing bias. We also had some poor earnings news from U.S. tech and media names after Wall Street closed.
