What a Week: Balky Bulls

Negativity among retail investors likely reflects the harsh memories of the bursting of the late 1990s bubble and today's concerns about rising gasoline prices and the housing market's slow-motion train wreck.

Disappointing results and/or guidance this week from retailers Sears Holdings (SHLD Quote), OfficeMax (OMX Quote) and Under Armor (UA Quote), as well as automaker General Motors (GM Quote) revived concerns about the state of the U.S. consumer and the impact of the housing slowdown. More so after Monday's lackluster reports on personal consumption and pending home sales, as well as Friday's payroll data.

In addition to retail investors, "traditional institutional investors are still cautious," Levkovich said Friday in an interview on TheStreet.com TV. "People aren't chasing the market. It's the reverse -- they're backing away."

Even some typically bullish market strategists have gotten more cautious as the market has rallied.

"On the short term, we have backed off our aggressive buy strategy just slightly," Don Hays of Hays Advisory wrote on Wednesday. "We have put it in neutral and have done ever so slight pruning, but aching to put that smidgen of cash back into stocks." (Italics added, lest anyone be confused about Hays' perspective.)

On Thursday morning, Al Goldman of A.G. Edwards was quoted in The Wall Street Journal advising investors to "hold off" on putting money in the market. The same day, CNBC had Eugene Peroni talking about a possible 3%-5% near-term retreat.