The American Petroleum Institute said late yesterdaythat the U.S. crude supply increased by 14.2 million barrels last week, well beyond the 2.5 million expected. Official weekly inventory data from the Energy Information Administration is due later today. March crude is off 0.7% to $51.84 a barrel on the New York Merc.
The latest weekly survey of U.S. advisors by Investors Intelligence, showed that the number of bulls rose to 62.7% last week, the highest level since December 2004. It considers numbers above 55% a danger zone. It’s a contrarian warning of a potential market top. Advisors have been bullish on U.S. stocks for the past 11 straight weeks as the S&P 500 rose 7% over the past three months and is trading near all-time highs. Last year, when stocks posted a sharp January-February decline, the bullish count fell as low as 24.7%. In the latest survey, the percentage of bearish advisors fell to 16.7% as they reacted to market strength. That is the fewest bears since August 2015. Investor Intelligence said that advisor sentiment is a leading indicator and that excessive optimism most often peaks prior to the indexes.
Serving the West Side first, I am Bill Roller of BR Capital for 1360 KUIK.
