Skeptical Investors Still 'Don't Quite Trust' the New President

As Cohn's statement reflects, there's no shortage of advice in the marketplace for the administration, especially since the market has recovered off its March lows.

The prevailing sentiment: Don't screw it up.

Cohn represents a tepid middle ground of market sentiment, with statements like, "I don't perceive the new administration to be investor unfriendly."

Beneath that thought is worry that Obama will go too far in emulating FDR's New Deal template and send the market into another tizzy similar to the 1937 swoon in the economy that came just as many thought the Great Depression had ended.

"They tried to balance the budget in 1937 and they raised taxes, which basically sent the market into a massive tailspin and prolonged the Depression for another couple of years," Cohn says. "They're deathly afraid of that result from Obama, which while it seems fiscally prudent it's not from an investment standpoint and from an economic standpoint."

One thing the administration could do to boost market confidence would be to start taking a little lower profile.

"If I were him right now I'd be careful. I think the answer about whether this is a bear market rally or is part of a bull market could hinge on what the government does and doesn't do," Tuttle says.

"I'd rather hear much less from them. I don't want to see Obama and Geithner and (Fed Chairman Ben) Bernanke speaking every 10 minutes somewhere. I'd rather see less of them. I don't want them to mess this up."

And there's plenty to mess up.

For while the banking picture may be getting clearer, consumers remain under tremendous pressure as unemployment rises, housing continues to languish and the economy contracts.

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In fact, some of the market's biggest consumer staples companies--Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods to name two--have been Wall Street's biggest losers since the Obama era began. The companies have lost 14 and 21 percent respectively and reflect a throbbing unease by average Americans who've gotten rocked by the financial system's failure.

That lack of confidence is rarely positive for investors.

"They keep using the word 'crisis,'" Magnet Investment's Kimmel notes. "It's a standard political ploy to mean we need to help you because you can't help yourself. It's a story of big government that's never really friendly towards Wall Street."

The upshot seems to be that the administration, despite its recent successes, has still failed to bring everyone on Wall Street along for the ride.

Restoring confidence, then, will be the big challenge going forward.

"The big billion-dollar money guys have all reined in their horns and don't believe that we're coming out of this anytime soon," Cohn says. "You want to bring these guys back into the market, because that's what's going to make this thing go up and the world to be all right again."

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