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Bears Struggle To Shake 2023’s ‘Can’t Win For Losing’ Curse
For a day, maybe two, it looked like the stars might be aligning for a bearish contingent that's spent most of 2023 stuck in a "can't win for losing" nightmare.
Rekindled bank stress fears courtesy of First Republic, US debt ceiling drama, expectations for at least one earnings miss from mega-cap US tech and the exhaustion of systematic buying power, all looked like good candidates to shake equities out of the narrow closing range that served to suppress realized volatility over the past month,
This current stock market is nuts. I have a bunch of LLY and was in the process of using it to fulfill philanthropic pledges this year because the gain is too big to sell it off. It started off the year too high at ~$360 but as I was planning my gifts it fell to ~$310 and I thought I had given up a good bit of value for my deductions. I dithered (other things on my mind) and whoosh, in the last month the stupid stock is up to ~$400, at 46x earnings (my basis is $35). I hate to be nervous when I’m so far ahead (now my biggest stock holding by a mile). MCD, with its new menu being panned all over the place is now close to $300. I feel like I’m watching a magic show and I can’t figure out how the assistant is hanging ten feet above the stage with no visible support.