The U.S. stock market’s January rally was the real deal. That isn’t a popular view, but I like that I am in good company. Ed Yardeni, the strategist and economic data whisperer at Yardeni Research, puts the odds of a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy at 60%. Soft landing means the Fed manages to tame inflation without creating a recession.
An even more bullish take comes from money manager Vance Howard at Howard Capital Management: “The trend is up. Very much so,” he says. Howard says the rally off the October lows through early February is the start of a new uptrend. He thinks the pullback since then is buyable, and the weakness is an opportunity to add to positions. “This is just a consolidation in my opinion. This is a buyable pullback,” he says. “To be successful at this you have to do what is uncomfortable. There is a lot of negative news out there, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enter into a new bull market. You have to be really careful about not coming back into the market because you are afraid.” Why should you care what Howard thinks? He uses a proprietary technical analysis system which supports a respectable medium-term record. What to consider buying? Howard leans towards cyclical sectors. These are the areas that do well when sentiment improves on the economy and stock market. Sectors he favors currently i …