"Does sentiment continue to work higher and eventually pull up actual results or can sentiment only take you so far until you have some follow-through in the real data? Those are the things that will be on our minds," he said.Results from small-cap retail companies will also be pored over as these companies have struggled from a profitability standpoint, said Steven DeSanctis, equity strategist at Jefferies. "Though retail sales numbers have been good, profitability for a lot of the retailers has not been good," he said. "That's going to be a big telltale sign for us. We're overweight discretionary, thinking that was the cheapest group out there, and it still is the cheapest but... if the E drops out the PE, you run into a problem there," he said, referring to price-to-earnings for the group.- Reuters

Source: The Star February 17, 2017 22:53 UTC