10 Stocks for the Cockeyed Optimist

Through the end of last week, for every two stocks that were up this year, another three were down. Among the major companies in the S&P 500, 213 were up for the year and 287 had fallen.

These stats may seem unexceptional when you see that the S&P 500 is down 4.3% in 2004, but they're relevant because they helps us understand whether stocks today are merely in a soft patch of a bull market that started in spring 2003 or have actually resumed the great millennial bear market.

The latter is probably the case, unfortunately. But before holding a wake for stocks, let's back up a moment and see how we got into this mess. ...