Can US Equities Go Green For The Year?

Jon Alternative Media, Blogosphere, Economy, Energy, Fiscal Policies, Gold, Market Commentary, Politics, Precious Metals

Via ConvergEx’s Nicholas Colas,
With yesterday’s impressive equity rally, every trader is asking the same question: ‘Can U. S. equities go green on the year?’ The S&P 500 is now down ‘just’ 3.2% in 2016 and there’s nothing like a 2% one-day rally to hold out hope of actual gains before March 31.
To think through this question, we outline the scenarios that DO push equities higher (a good jobs number, a quiescent Fed, and good economic data) and compare them to those that DON’T (presidential politics, oil prices, and corporate fundamentals). To our thinking, it’s a coin toss either way. For the bullish camp, we recommend Financials – laggards YTD, but set for a rally based on the catalysts that might move markets higher. And for the bears: the biggest winners YTD (Utilities, Staples and Telecomm) along with gold and Treasuries.
Nothing is working the way it’s supposed to, at least lately. Just consider a few of yesterday’s headlines:

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 03/02/2016.