Barron's had a couple of interesting nuggets this weekend. First was an article commemorating, in a manner of speaking, the one year anniversary of what appears to be the low. The article went on to make a bullish case for domestic and foreign equities. I would not say the article pounded the table with bullishness but there were a couple of items worth commenting on.

There was a bit on the US market broken down to the sector level (well, eight of the ten sectors), showing current PE ratios versus historical PE ratios to make the argument that they are cheap. If you do a little research, you will see that PEs can stay low or high for quite a while without much in the way of predicative value.

By John Gabriel

The U.S. exchange-traded fund industry continues to evolve and attract assets. U.S. ETFs closed out 2009 with $785 billion in assets, up from roughly $533 billion at the end of 2008. In 2009, investors poured $104.1 billion in net new assets into ETFs, following a banner year in 2008 that saw ETFs draw some $156.6 billion in net inflows. Of the industry's 47% increase in year-over-year total net assets, roughly 40% was attributable to net inflows during the past year, while the remaining 60% was the result of strong market performance.

Nobody “feels” like things are getting better. Bearishness pops up in discussions of euro devaluation, gold appreciation, China inflation, Japan deflation and U.S. stagnation.

Unfortunately, it’s our feelings as human beings that derails us; in fact, when analysts pass off their emotionality as unbiased assessment, it often prompts investors to sell lower and buy higher.