Feels like 1999, only in reverse, doesn’t it? 

Don’t remember 1999?  That was when all news was good news, when stocks could only go up, when valuations didn’t matter, when technology stocks and big cap growth stocks would rule the world, when we hung on the words of Pollyannas and “gurus” expounding the Brave New World that lay in front of us.

There has been an avalanche of bad economic news as of late, giving the bears impetus to bang the market down, and giving the bulls no reason to buy.  (Well, the smart bulls. - ed.)

However, there is evidence that a few green shoots are popping up in the economy.

In a recession as bad as this one, here is what passes for optimism: Some economists say the wrenching pace of the downturn may be slowing.

I see under no circumstances how this could possibly be a good thing.

I was a bit skeptical about the appointment of Timothy Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury, given that he was President of the New York Fed when all the crazy derivatives were being leveraged onto the balance sheets of the banks for most of the decade.  I am of the opinion that no one from Wall Street should be allowed inside the Beltway, let alone within the corridors of power after the debacle they helped create.

Frankly, I am having a hard time being bullish because everything feels so bad.

I was in the office on President's Day and watched the S&P 500 futures tick down to near-term support at 806, such that futures are indicating a 20 point decline at the open on Tuesday.  Now, it appears the market has formed a short-term double-top, and with stocks continuing to reach lower highs, it feels like we are about to break to the downside and re-test the November lows.

From last weekend's New York Times

Bill Spikowski, a city planning consultant in Fort Myers, said that because Lehigh Acres had so many parcels and few restrictions on what could be built, smaller companies battled for customers. From 2004 to the end of 2006, developers completed 13,183 units in Lehigh Acres — nearly doubling the total stock of 15,216 that existed in 2000, according to Lee County figures.

From The Wall Street Journal.

The current interest-rate trough reflects several weaknesses in today's financial markets that also are undermining the broader economy, from the failure of monetary policy makers to recognize the impact of financial and structural changes on market behavior, to serious lapses by credit rating agencies, to the inability of the senior management of financial institutions to stay within reasonable risk parameters.

Oh, the irony...

The young banker just bought Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's childhood home at a foreclosure sale.

Here is an interesting bit of minutiae - since the market began collapsing in September, if in each month you had bought stocks in the middle of the month and sold equities at the end of the month, you would have made money. 

Given how horrendous the market has been, it almost sounds unbelievable, but it is true.  The following are the returns of the S&P 500 for the first half of the month for September through January.

From Tom Toles.