10 Positive Signs for Stocks

Strong earnings performances seem to have fallen by the wayside recently, as the markets seem focused only on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The Dow Jones index dropped 109 points on Wednesday after Bernanke commented that the current economic outlook is “unusually uncertain”.

While Bernanke painted a fairly grim picture as he testified before Congress yesterday, former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer gave investors a more optimistic view on his Mad Money show.

Here are 10 positive signs for stocks that investors should be aware of:

1. China
The Baltic Freight Index has been up for three straight days after being down for months. This has been driven by increasing demand from China which seems to be experiencing a soft landing.

2. Brazil
It seems that almost every company is talking about Brazil on their conference calls. The Latin American country is becoming a serious player in the global economy.

3. Europe
One early surprise this earnings season is that the euro hasn’t dragged down quarterly results. The euro is now in recovery mode and European banks like Banco Santander [(STD: 8.75 0.00%) are much stronger than they appeared just a few weeks ago.

4. Financial regulation
The uncertainty surrounding the financial reform bill is now over. Yesterday, President Obama signed the bill into law and so now financial firms can begin evaluating the impact.

5. Gridlock in Washington
After passing massive reforms to the healthcare and financial systems, the Democratic-controlled Congress is likely to face more gridlocks in the future. The American public has expressed their dissatisfaction with President Obama and Congress and it is unlikely that Democrats will be successful in the November elections.

6. Bernanke
Interest rates are extremely low courtesy of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. He is aggressively working to get America out of its current economic doldrums.

7. Strong earnings
We have seen several strong earnings reports particularly from tech stocks like Apple (AAPL: 476.68 0.00%) and Qualcomm (QCOM: 61.47 0.00%), but also from 3M (MMM: 87.97 0.00%), United Technologies (UTX: 81.74 0.00%), and Eaton (ETN: 51.65 0.00%).

8. Cheap Valuations
Stock valuations are very cheap right now, especially when compared to the minimal rates you get from owning bonds right now. Cramer believes that stock valuations are the lowest that he has seen in 30 years of investing.

9. Investor sentiment
Investor sentiment has been so bearish recently…it can only improve from here. That means that a lot of market sellers can be converted to buyers which will lift the market higher.

10. Long-term Stock Charts
The big gains experienced by the markets last year are getting ready to drop off the long-term stock charts. This will make the current market levels look much more attractive which could make many technical analysts much more bullish.