black bear tree
Flickr / brewbooks
It's lonely up here.
The bull market has entered its fifth year with the Dow closing at a new all-time high.
First the scoreboard:
Dow: 14,447, +50.2 pts, +0.3 percent

S&P 500: 1,556, +5.0 pts, +0.3 percent

NASDAQ: 3,252, +8.5 pts, +0.2 percent

And now the top stories:
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at yet another all-time high. This is the seventh straight day the Dow closed positive. Also, the S&P 500 is now just nine points from its all-time high of 1,565.

  • It's worth noting that the markets are establishing new highs as earnings growth expectations continue to come down. The technical term for this phenomenon is "multiples expansion" as the price-to-earnings ratio is increasing.  When multiples are expanding, stocks are getting more expensive.

  • There was no major economic news to move the markets today.  However, the market pundits continued to sound off loudly.

  • In a recent note to clients, economist David Rosenberg argued that this was not a stock market driven by earnings growth.  He continues to believe this rally has been driven by the Fed. He points to the "87 percent statistical relationship between the size of the Fed's balance sheet and the direction of the S&P 500, which now exceeds the time-worn 70 percent correlation with corporate earnings." 

  • Over the weekend, China dumped a huge pile of economic data.  Industrial production and retail sales both missed economists expectations.  However, exports and fixed asset investment were strong.  Ultimately, the data seems to be a wash, and the Chinese economic growth story appears to be intact.