I’m sure most everyone in the investment industry has heard of the “Dead Cat Bounce”. The phrase is tied to the idea that no matter how high a dead cat is dropped from, it will bounce once it hits the ground. As mental pictures go, this one is up there with the oft cited “Bulls Become Steers”. On the other hand, how many of you have heard of the “Dead Cat Slap”? This one is related to the old, “You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a such and such or so and so”. I think of this often as I read and or hear the constant drone from “nattering nabobs” (a phrase I borrowed from my friend Roger) telling us how terrible the situation is for the United States these days and that US stock indexes are likely headed to $0. I might’ve exaggerated the latter a bit, but it isn’t far from what the noise, Noise, NOISE continues to tell us.
There’s another old saying I’d like to remind all the Chicken Littles of: Bearish markets don’t make new highs. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what happened in the three major US stock markets as November came to an end and December began:
