Just as recessions are only determined after the fact, so is their end. Today the S&P closed at 750.74, nearly 12-1/2% above its recent low. We will only know months from now whether that low was in fact the bottom, and we are slowly coming out of the bear market. One other data point that came out today was retail sales.
As the forecast was for a far worse drop than we saw, this news was actually positive, and there’s hope out there that December was a bottom to this number at well. Time will tell, I’m looking forward to a positive March number.
Joe
Joe,
I don’t think that we need to jump up at every spike. They happen and they indicate nothing in the long term. The history is actually full of them: http://dshort.com/charts/bears-nominal-real.html?four-bears
HTH