Alpha Trader #15 - Fear of missing out turns into fear

The one-way stock market has gotten its excuse to reverse course a bit with the coronavirus panic. Even with the skittishness, hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher note it's only been the most modest of pullbacks so far. Even if inclined to buy-the-dip (and the hosts lean that way), there's no need to rush to do so. The question at hand: Is the market in a 1999 topping-out scenario or a mid-90s correction within a major bull market? Paul Tudor Jones, Seth Klarman, and even corporate gadfly turned stock-picker Ralph Nader are in the 1999 camp. Bridgewater honchos Ray Dalio and Bob Prince, and Appaloosa's David Tepper, on the other hand, remain bullish. Dalio - holding court at Davos last week - declared "cash is trash." Dalio's partner Prince even suggested the boom/bust cycle is kaput. The globe's major central banks are in a box, he says, not wanting to hike because of secular deflationary forces, and not wanting to ease in order to have some bullets in the chamber should a downturn hit. The focus at the moment is on the coronavirus, but this week will see some major Q4 earnings reports, Tesla (TSLA), Apple (AAPL), and Caterpillar (CAT) among them. Tesla's surge is arguably the largest single story in stocks over the past months, and Task wonders exactly how big a number will the company have to report to keep the momentum going. Instead of guessing, the hosts decide to see how the market reacts to either the good or bad news. They point to the recent case of Five Below (FIVE), which tumbled about 20% in response to disappointing holiday sales. Several sessions later, most of that drop had been recouped. A bull on the name might be inclined to stay so.