Is 6% the New 10%?
Oh how disappointed the bears of Wall Street must be. We started 2014 with what could only be described as the ideal set up for the often forecast, but not seen in a while, 10% correction in the market. As the market has continued to put in quarter after quarter of positive returns, the “talking heads” on channels like CNBC have long speculated about a pull back in the market most often defined as a 10% down movement. The pundits had a possible trifecta of sources for the negative news necessary to cause traders, portfolio managers, and everyone else that owns stocks to sell, take profits, and see if the market could be pushed down as we started the new year. That trifecta covered the new Fed Chairman, Janet Yellen, taking over our country’s monetary policy, a slowing in the economies in emerging markets, and finally the fear that corporate earnings must be slowing.