23.5 Percent

This week, the first full week of August, parents are preparing for the school year. Grandparents, I hope, are enjoying the summer flowers. And the equity market continues its trend of gradually increasing while the news of the day does its best to scare us away.

I have little to add to the following two points. I fear that if I say too much I will diminish their importance. First, I offer a fact to consider while investing in the stock market.Second, I offer a thought to ponder.

“23.5%. The estimated rise in profits at S and amp;P 500 companies in the three months through June, according to data from Thomson Reuters.”This is approximately twenty three point fivepercentbetter than most of the predictions I read four to six months ago. This is more than 2½ times revenue growth.SOURCE

“If a thousand financial journalists write that the equity market is overvalued, does the market hear them? And if they all write it often enough—say 10 times each multiplied by a thousand scribes equals ten thousand repetitions—will that make it true?” -Nick Murray

If I were a forecaster, and I am not, I would make a prediction that simply stated seems true. At some point in time, we will stop reading, and listening, to the bad news media. Like parents, whose child keeps protesting, we eventually grow deaf to the complaints and carry on!