When the Dow broke 10,000 (for the nth time) in the middle of last month, I cautioned that stocks had risen into thin air (again). The S&P 500 meandered around 1090 for a few days and then fell back.

The most recent sentiment overview shows an amazing turn of events. Even as the stock market has gone on to rise almost 60% from its dark depth 8 months ago, a moderate correction was enough to plunge the majority of retail investors into a new state of capitulation.

Sentiment Surveys
The star this week is the ever so humble and common AAII weekly survey of US retail investors. This sentiment indicator sends extreme signals every once in a blue moon. So I guess you better check the night sky tonight because we haven’t seen so few bulls in this survey in a long time.

But what if we step back from the raging and weeping talking heads on TV and instead of opinions, we just look at the facts?

Lowry measures this through their proprietary metric called (what else?) Selling Pressure. It remains low and falling, helping to support the thesis of a healthy market rally. According to Paul Desmond: “Every major market top in Lowry’s 76-year history has been preceded by a sustained rise in selling pressure. With selling pressure recording a new 12-month low within the past two weeks, no such rise is now evident.”

AAII Survey
This week’s survey of US retail sentiment by the Association of American Individual Investors came in at 34% bullish (a drop of 7% points from last week) and an increase of bears to 42% (a 6% point increase). While the increased fear is normal after the kind of week we had, the ratio of the two remains neutral. Had the response been either muted or exaggerated, it would have been more interesting. At this point, it doesn’t really offer any edge.

While it will take a few days for the whole report to be dissected, it is more likely that it was an excused used to run up prices, rather than the actual rationale. Especially since many have pointed out reasons at the beginning of the third quarter why the recession may be over. I attribute the bounce today to the extremely oversold breadth - in the very short term.

So now that the US economy is still on the ropes, fighting for its very survival and in dire need of a liquidity transfusion of its own via the credit markets, where are the banks?

Investors Intelligence
This week the ChartCraft measure of stock newsletter editors sentiment was little changed from last week: 49.5% bullish and 23.1% bearish. That’s another week where twice as many are optimistic that the stock market will continue to rise. A remarkable long string of weeks but so far they have been correct.

But this year was atypical in that we had a spectacular rally early in the year. In fact, this was arguably the most hated rally since very few purportedly believed in it or predicted it. And yet it happened. In any case, seasonality patterns should not be confused with blueprints. They are merely loose fitting guides to be draped over price action. The stock market certainly does not heed them every cycle.

Dow 10,000
Yes, the Dow Jones reached and surpassed the magically round number 10,000. But in case you were too busy to count, this is for the 26th time it has done so in the past 10 years. So that means we’ve had about 10 years of zero returns (excluding dividends and inflation). Those specialty party hats the NYSE hands out are well worn by now and no one really knows what we’re supposed to be celebrating.

Sentiment Surveys
If you’ve been monitoring the mutual fund flow data, you wouldn’t be surprised to see the AAII continue to show the average US retail investor as decidedly unimpressed and cool about the rising stock market. This week the pessimist camp grew slightly to 41% while the bulls shrank by 9% points to 35%.

More and more, this is a technically driven market, decoupled from such mundane things as P/E or the economy or any type of anchor we may think is rational to attach to it. We just ricocheted off the S&P 500 index’s 50 day moving average. If you recall back in June and July it was the 200 day moving average which buttressed the index before turning up itself.

Take for example the percentage of stocks closing above their 10 day moving average. This simple breadth measure is surprisingly accurate at finding inflection points, both in the short and intermediate term. According to a study from Lowry Research which I shared with my readers a few years ago, it has an almost perfect track record: Latest Research Report From Lowry Research (2007).

Sentiment Surveys
The weekly American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) stock sentiment survey shows a surprising increase in optimism. Of the respondents, 44% were bullish (a 5% increase from last week) and 35% were bearish (a 10% point drop from before). We aren’t near any sort of extreme level, however the direction of sentiment is puzzling since the stock market closed lower than it has for the past 18 days.

According to the study, when the stock market has trended enough to set off this indicator, it has trouble continuing its heady ways in the months that follow. The average 6 month return is -5%.

And in case you think he is some sort of doomsayer who just now happens to be correct, keep in mind that throughout his lengthy career, he has made some unbelievable calls - both long and short. So he clearly is not a perma-bear of the Howard Ruff variety. The last time Ruff was on CNBC hoarsely growling his ever pessimistic prognosis, I wondered if this was a contrarian signal from the trading gods. With hindsight’s approval we know that it most certainly was.

Sentiment Surveys
The American Association of Individual Investors’ weekly survey of sentiment doesn’t show much change. About 39% think the market will go higher - that’s 3% points less than last week - while 45% think the market will fall - that’s a 5% point increase from last week. All in all, the AAII survey hasn’t given us a signal definitive signal since August when it blinked red (excessive bullishness) and earlier in March when it blinked green for excessive bearishness.