Markets mixed amid “obscene valuations”

Markets were mixed on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent but the STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.2 percent.

Earlier in Asia, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 percent but the Shanghai Composite rose 0.9 percent.

“With the market up as much as it is, I don’t think investors are in a rush to commit a lot of new capital unless they see events that would cause them to think we have another leg up ahead,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments.

Indeed, John Hussman remains relatively pessimistic.

Hussman wrote that “our near-term market outlook is fairly neutral” as “our measures of market internals are now close to a threshold that could encourage speculators to take the bit in their teeth again, at least briefly”.

However, “with obscene valuations, deterioration in our leading economic measures, a clear and widely overlooked spike in inflationary expectations reflected in inflation-protected securities and commodities, still-muted participation in the broad market, and other factors, we aren’t inclined toward a constructive outlook either”.