A Disturbance in the Farce? Stocks End Lower Second Straight Session

Stocks turn red for the second straight session, this being the first full week of June, suggesting that there may be a revised adage for the new Wall Street, "Sell in June and avoid the swoon?"

Obviously, two days of smallish losses does not constitute a trend. Three days might. A close on the Dow below 20,600 would. Not only would that be a nearly three percent decline (OMG!), but it would be below the previous low close, a line of demarcation that could signal the oncoming of a bear market.

Those who deny the possibility of a bear market are either under the age of eight and have never seen what one looks like, or has forgotten prior bear markets, which generally occur when stocks are overstretched, overvalued and/or overbought.

To imagine that after eight years of somewhat spectacular gains that investors might disinvest and actually pull some of their support from the lofty prices of stocks on the Dow, NASDAQ, S&P, et. al., is not so far-fetched. It's happened before. It will, in all likelihood, happen again.

Trying to time such an event is the task of fools. With the FOMC ready to raise interest rates again, despite the incongruous activity in the bond markets (10-year-note yield at seven month lows, 2.15%), continued declines may become not a nuisance, but a feature this summer, one of the big hits that Hollywood will miss completely.

At The Close, 6/6/17:
Dow: 21,136.23, -47.81 (-0.23%)
NASDAQ 6,275.06, -20.63 (-0.33%)
S&P 500 2,429.33, -6.77 (-0.28%)
NYSE Composite: 11,671.46, -22.22 (-0.19%)