Chasing the top

No panic under fire, and champagne on ice to toast the peace deal. On paper, the weeks look alike. And yet the trap is closing slowly but surely on investors hunting for fresh yearly highs.

Since the start of the month, every bullish charge out of the gate has been a flash in the pan, the mark of a bull market running out of breath. Take the attempted recovery on inflation figures that came in “less bad” than expected: +3.5% year over year against +3.8% forecast.

The bearish moves are quieter, wrapped in total denial and a heavy dose of euphemism. The slide in AI stocks gets politely labeled a “correction,” while SpaceX, the poster child of space conquest and rampant speculation, just watched its price cut in half in a matter of weeks without stirring a soul.