Is a Bull Market on the Horizon?

Apocalyptic attitudes abound, but weed through the financial doom and gloom and you'll find a few economists who think we've bottomed out, and that a bull market is up next, writes Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times. The Dow has dropped 34.6% in the last year, but recent signs—bargain-basement interest rates, yesterday's coordinated rate cut, reduced commodities prices—point to a turnaround, say some.

"These are the moments that people look back on and say, 'Man, if I only bought then!' " said one economist. "And nobody ever does." Still, emotion remains a "big wild card." Fear has locked-up credit markets, and nervous Americans are unloading stocks. "A huge amount of money is leaving the equity markets because people need cash," Zachary Karabell adds, "not because they're making cogent decisions about companies."
(More bull market stories.)