Bearish Sentiment Hits 27 Year Highs

Yesterday Merrill Lynch's quantitative strategy group published a report detailing the deep and broad prevailing Wall Street sentiment on stocks.

Merrill's chart is worth a thousand words:

 

Here's what Merrill's chief investment strategist Savita Subramanian wrote (I added the emphasis):

...our measure of Wall Street bullishness on stocks has continued to decline, marking the tenth time in the past year that the indicator has fallen. This month's 5.5ppt decline pushed the indicator down to 43.9, the lowest level in the history of our data going back to 1985, suggesting that sell side strategists are now more bearish on equities than they were at any point in the last 27 years. 

http://rcr.ml.com/Archive/11190320.pdf?w=dglen%40bpbtc.com&q=9ESFX5nktWB-yxxZy7!D1A&__gda__=1343939415_f2917d1191130c28768d8783830407bc 

Meanwhile, corporate earnings reports for the second quarter have had the consistent theme of weak revenue growth but positive earnings trends.