Crash talk

There’s a lot of talk going around today about an imminent market crash. Get a load of what investor and renowned Dow Theory Letters author Richard Russell has to say (via Pragmatic Capitalism):

Do your friends a favor. Tell them to “batten down the hatches” because there’s a HARD RAIN coming. Tell them to get out of debt and sell anything they can sell (and don’t need) in order to get liquid. Tell them that Richard Russell says that by the end of this year they won’t recognize the country. They’ll retort, “How the dickens does Russell know — who told him?” Tell them the stock market told him.”

Pretty alarming stuff. Russell bases his pessimistic outlook on the fact that markets have been falling over the past month or so in the midst of improving earnings and economic recovery news. 

The “reformed broker” Joshua Brown sees many joining the "crash camp". He writes:

I've been running around Manhattan all day taking care of business, meeting clients etc.  After scanning today's articles and blog posts, I can honestly say that I've never heard more chatter about an imminent market crash, all at once, in my life.  It's like the May 6th Flash Crash got everyone in the mood to talk cataclysm all of a sudden.

Brown notes that players from different areas – “macro guys”, “technicians and Dow Theorists”, “equity analysts”, “bond guys”, “hedgies” – are all fearing a crash, based on different evidence that reaches a similar conclusion. Hold your hats.