Last week we pointed out that whether due to skill or chance, Michael Hartnett's "sell" signal - which as we reported back in December had been triggered with just two weeks left in 2024 - had once again successfully marked the peak of the market, and a few weeks later culminated with a 10% S&P correction in 20 days, the 5th fastest correction in the last 75 years (the fastest ever was 8 days, during the onset of Covid – 2/27/20), a 14% drop in the Nasdaq, 20% drop in the Mag7, and a 5% slide in the ACWI -5%.

Still, as we also pointed out last week, the Bank of America strategist refused to press US shorts, predicting that this is not the start of a bear market for US stocks but only a correction (reminding readers that "markets stop panicking when policy makers start panicking" something he believed would happen sooner or later, and judging by the tentative appearance of the Fed Put last week, he was right again).