Does the new bull market belong to Obama?
Continuing a two-month-long trend, U.S. stocks had another good day on Monday. The S&P 500 moved into positive territory for the year, and the Dow Jones industrial average rose 214 points, or 2.6 percent. Bearing in mind the usual disclaimer that it’s hard to ever have much certainty on what factors are responsible for any given day’s stock market rise or fall, let’s take a closer look at the three news items the financial press is crediting with responsibility for Monday’s euphoria: 1) the first rise in construction spending in six months; 2) a greater than expected jump in pending home sales (marking the first back-to-back monthly increase in over a year); and 3) the leaked news that the results of the stress tests will be less horrible than Wall Street feared.
