Quote of the Day: What Could Bring the Bears Back...

Economist Ed Yardeni echoes our chief concern for the market coming into this year (as expressed in our 2017 year-end letter), and the idiosyncrasy that we've stated will likely mute the specifics of what might otherwise test our bullish thesis going forward:

"The bears could make a comeback if President Donald Trump turns into an outright protectionist," Ed Yardeni, president and chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research, said in a note Monday. "More likely is that he will back off if the market continues to react badly to his protectionist pronouncements."

I.e., we've quickly gone from tariffs on every country, no exceptions, to:

"We have large trade deficits with Mexico and Canada. NAFTA, which is under renegotiation right now, has been a bad deal for U.S.A. Massive relocation of companies & jobs. Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed."

President Trump via Twitter this morning

And the Dow quickly went from down 150 to up 200 (but, please, don't even begin the think that the volatility's about to lessen!)