| Greg Guenthner coming to you from Baltimore, MD...  The stock market STINKS! That's exactly what an old man hollered at me as I nursed a beer after an afternoon round of golf recently. A friend had asked me about the stock market… and the grumpy codger at the next table couldn't resist chiming in. But you know what? He's right. The stock market does stink right now—at least for passive investors who have a ton of money tied up in index funds that have gone nowhere this year. So can you really blame folks for losing the faith? The bull market is so old it needs to start looking for a good nursing home. Fewer and fewer stocks are propping up the major averages. Heck, not even the biggest and brightest stocks on the market —like Apple— can muster up the strength to get off the couch. No wonder investor pessimism jumped to two-year highs earlier this month, according to the AAII Sentiment Survey. Almost every single member of the Dow was in the red yesterday. The only "bright spots" were McDonalds and Nike, which both enjoyed a gain of a few pennies apiece by the afternoon bell. With the Dow off another 160 points, it's now down close to 3% on the year—and getting closer and closer to its February lows: 
Last week's babble over the Dow's "death cross" has vanished from the attention deficit disorder-inflicted financial media. But we don't need the buzzword indicators to tell us the market's just not healthy at the moment… Remember, more than half the stocks in the S&P 500 are now considered to be in correction territory. Breadth is terrible right now. So once again, it's crucial to remember that most folks' stocks are going one of two places: nowhere or down. It's time to zero in on our Big Board support level once again: Dow 17,170. If this level cracks, look out below… "It doesn't sound nearly as scary as a death cross," I told you last week. "But I'm much more interested in the 17,170 level on the Dow than any death cross (it briefly broke below that mark early yesterday before its afternoon comeback). That's the Dow's February low—and where a potential Dow Theory sell signal would occur." With all of this lousy news crawling across your computer screen this month, there's just nothing left to buy that has any shot at delivering double-digit returns, right? Wrong. In fact, while most investors continue to throw a tantrum over lousy market conditions, there are plenty of opportunities you've had a chance to grab onto over the past several weeks. The stock market might stink right now. But if we stay on our toes, we'll have little trouble navigating the wreckage and finding those profitable diamonds in the rough… [Ed. Note: Send your feedback here: rude@agorafinancial.com - and follow me on Twitter: @GregGuenthner] | 
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Keep a civil tongue.