Market Analysts Keep Looking For Market Bottom

Several interesting strategist/analyst calls this morning, all trying to pick a bottom:

1) Credit Suisse recommending an overweight in U.S. stocks because the Fed is likely to cut rates to respond to the slowing economy quicker than their European counterparts. They are recommending a 5 percent overweight in U.S. stocks. Is it possible that the U.S. will finally outperform emerging markets in 2008?

2) Ed Wolfe at Bear Stearns, who has underweighted trucking companies for 2 1/2 years, today upgrades the sector, saying "We still believe fundamentals are weak, particularly for LTL providers, and that 4Q and 1Q reports will be terrible, but our sense is the stocks are closer to a bottom and the risk/reward is more balanced."

3)Credit Suisse upgraded the home improvement stocks today--Home Depot ,Lowe's ,Bed Bath and Beyond --on valuation.

4) JP Morgan strategist Thomas Lee noted that the Russell 2000, the main small cap index, registered a "seller exhaustion" signal last week, meaning that he believes that index has bottomed and may start to rally.

Note that all the above did not say the bad news was over; implicit in their remarks is that markets usually bottom before all the bad news is out.

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