Equities: "Looking well past the trade drama"

S&P 500 down 40 (1.37%); DJIA down 333 (1,26%)
From MarketWatch, 9:55 am EDT:

One of Wall Street’s biggest bulls is looking well past the trade drama

The good news? U.S.-China trade talks are still happening and Beijing’s top negotiator, Vice-Premier Liu He, is expected to attend talks this week in Washington.

The bad? A Sino-American trade resolution looks unlikely by Friday, with an increase of tariffs all but assured. That’s because White House officials confirmed an intention to raise import duties on Chinese goods, first communicated by President Donald Trump over the weekend via a series of tweets. U.S. officials say that Beijing attempted to renege on some trade promises, which likely prompted a renewed animus from Trump.

So far, the glass-half-empty crowd looks ready to push U.S. stocks lower again on Tuesday, though it’s worth noting that Monday’s trade action, which featured a powerful rebound toward the end of the session, may suggest lingering optimism on Wall Street.

That optimism provides an apt launching point for our call of the day from Jonathan Golub, chief U.S. equity strategist at Credit Suisse.

Golub, in an interview with MarketWatch on Monday, said that his upbeat outlook for equities remains undeterred by recent moves. The strategist says his current year-end target of 3,025 for the S&P 500 seems rather tame. It “seemed so bullish, and now it seems so conservative,” Golub said. The Credit Suisse analyst had begun the year with a 3,350 last year, but slashed it to 2,925 during December’s volatile market action. Who can blame him?

“We think stocks are going to continue to deliver over the next several years — high single digits or better returns,” said the strategist, who adds that he’s “very comfortable” with their current S&P forecast for 2019.

His upbeat equity outlook looks past the vagaries of U.S.-China trade talks and focuses on the meat and potatoes of this market: the economy. “The real key here is that we have an economy that is healthy and creating a ton of jobs,” he said, adding that well-contained inflation will likely the Federal Reserve from turning more hawkish on policy.
On top of that, first-quarter earnings turned out better-than-feared, he adds....MUCH MORE

I've mentioned I knew a retired analyst who believed the market was speaking to him, he was of course quite insane.

But he had some interesting insights and I am reminded of one of these reading the above.

One day, a particularly down day, I asked him "What's Mr. Market (nod to Ben Graham) thinking about, Bob?"

And Bob the loony analyst said "Mr. Market is pleading, 'How can I get rich if you won't sell me your stock?'"

And with that he lit a cigarette and walked away.

That's what I thought of on this down day at the market.

Here's more Bob the analyst, this piece is from 2009:

Some Pretty Smart Intermarket Analysis 

It's all about money flows. (and information asymmetries)
Some years ago I knew a retired analyst who had been able to make a meagre living by tracking the flow of funds in smaller western U.S. equity markets, Spokane, Salt Lake City, Denver, etc.
He was insane by the time I met him.

He'd made up his own language to describe what he was doing, the gist being that it is the marginal dollar going into (or coming out of) a market that makes the move.
His problem, well two actually, was that:
a) no one knew what the heck he was talking about and
b) there wasn't enough data to really capitalize on what he had been trying to do....