The best thing that could happen this summer is for the bull to take a vacation from Wall Street.
In fact, experts say investors should pull the plug on those stock market gurus on cable networks and head for the beach.
The Street now reckons that the nation's economy is finally settling down after being slapped by six interest-rate increases by the Federal Reserve since June 1999.
The Fed has boosted the cost of home mortgages, car loans and credit card fees to weaken demand and thus ease pressure on the price of goods. The monetary tightening, in turn, has triggered a bone-jarring drop in stocks, particularly the Nasdaq composite index, which went into a freefall of nearly 40 percent this spring.
But, proving again that things are never the way they seem, the stock market rocketed a week ago on the bad news that unemployment rose in May, retail sales fell, personal income was flat and manufacturing activity slipped.
Investors bought stocks because, in their view, the bad news is actually good.
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