When bears are loud, consider this

Some gloomy headlines are coming out of Wall Street lately. Have you noticed?

In recent days, I’ve read things like “Brace yourself for economic hurricanes” and “Wall Street investor survey paints a dire outlook.” It makes you wonder where the bullish thinkers have gone.

While negative headlines are eye-catching, a gloom-and-doom perspective misses some finer details. For example, look at how positively the financial markets reacted when the Fed’s May meeting minutes were released. What does this indicate? To start, investors feel confident in the Fed’s plan for interest rates. Also, three out of four companies posted positive earnings and strong revenue in the first quarter. It’s important to remember that companies are healthy, even if that doesn’t make for the most sensational news.

Bearish sentiment may be trendy, but keeping a broad perspective never goes out of style.