A Bearish Argument For The Rest of The Year

Doug Kass a noted Hedge Fund Manager and a contributer over at thestreet.com, posted a well reasoned and well written article earlier this week which is decidedly more negative than what most people will write . Doug is not a bear per sea.  Rather he thinks that the headwinds that could push against stocks in the 2nd half of the year could make for a more challenged environment for stocks.   

As I have discussed in past posts , I am positive for stocks through the end of the year, though it would not surprise me if stocks tread water or decline somewhat from here until the fall.  Irrespective of what might occur between now and then, I think stocks have the potential from these levels to finish the year higher.  I think they could finish somewhere between 1,350 & 1,400 on the S&P 500.  When you include dividends that's a potential increase from here of between 3-6% on that index.   

In trying to present balanced views here, I thought I would post a link to article below.  It's too long and to interesting for me to try and excerpt it here.

Link:  Kass: False Sense of Security

*Long ETFs related to the S&P 500 in client accounts.