Eaton Vance's Perkin: US equities in midst of most unwelcome bull market in history

The S&P 500 has more than tripled since March 2009. Yet many investors have been under-represented in stocks, fearing another crash may be imminent.

Many have been surprised at the resilience of corporate profits and equity valuations in the face of a weak economic recovery. The bull case for US stocks has three elements: market sentiment, a contrarian indicator, is poor; the US election may be a catalyst for changes to fiscal and regulatory policy; and productivity could get a boost from various new technologies. Market sentiment is well illustrated by the American Association of Individual Investors' weekly survey. At mid-year, only 28.9% of respondents claimed to be bullish on US stocks. Bull markets tend to end when optimism b...