The latest data from the AAR on rail traffic continues to point to a softening overall trend in the economy.  They reported another substantial decline in carloads while intermodal continued …

Neutral sentiment rose to a four-month high in the latest AAII Sentiment Survey. Pessimism about the short-term direction of stock prices topped optimism for the second consecutive week.

Headline inflation ticked lower this month to 2.6% while the core continued to press higher to 2.3%.   The devil is in the details though.  The headline is being compressed …

Rail data continues to soften this week with carloads posting a -7.7% decline and intermodal posting just a 1.1% increase. Coal continues to drag the index down substantially although broader trends have deteriorated as well with just 9 of the 20 segments posting gains.

Bearish sentiment surged from being below average to an unusually high level in the latest AAII Sentiment Survey. Meanwhile, bullish sentiment plunged to a seven-month low.

The story from rail traffic is becoming increasingly mixed, but the trend in growth is clearly on the decline although much of the discrepancy is coming from the coal segment. …

Bullish sentiment is below its historical average for the first time in 15 weeks, according to the latest AAII Sentiment Survey.

Here’s the latest from Investor’s Intelligence on the 9 month high in the bull/bear spread:
“After a second weekly gain just above 2% the bulls were 52.7%, from 50.5% a week ago. Their number is …

Individual investors modestly increased their allocations to stocks and stock funds last month, even as cash allocations rose to a three-month high,according to the March AAII Asset Allocation Survey.

April is still the best Dow month (average 2.0%) since 1950