Consumer Sentiment Confirms Overbullishness Across the Board

This is a follow up from my post published last Sunday:

Consumer Sentiment in U.S. Reaches 1-Year High on Jobs: Economy
Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. consumers rose more than forecast in February, reaching a one-year high as Americans grew more upbeat about the outlook for the economy. 

[...] Three straight months of faster job growth along with a stock market rally since late 2011 are helping keep Americans optimistic in the face of rising gasoline prices. Further gains in confidence may sustain the household spending that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. 

“The overwhelming fact is that the job market has gotten better,” said Bill Cheney, chief economist for John Hancock Financial Services Inc. in Boston, who projected a gain. “People are back to spending most of the additional income that they get, so as employment increases and you get some meager increases in wages, they do feed through to more spending.”

Thanks to my friend SS who sent me the report.

And, as a bonus, another over bullish report:

Biggest Profits Lag on Record Can’t Stop Stocks Rally

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks are rallying just as much as the rest of the world in the best start to a year since 1998, even as analysts cut earnings forecasts, profits trail estimates by the most on record and debt-encumbered economies stop growing. 

[...] Bulls say equities in the region are irresistible because Stoxx 600 valuations already reflect prospects of a recession, while Greece reached an agreement for the biggest sovereign-debt restructuring in history and the ECB may lend 470 billion euros ($633 billion) to banks. 

Bears say share prices have risen too fast and government plans to reduce debt with austerity budgets will cause years of sluggish growth. 

“A lot of the negative news in terms of earnings, economic outlook and risks coming from the sovereign problems has been discounted,” said Joost van Leenders, an Amsterdam-based strategist at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, which oversees $662 billion and last week upgraded its allocation to European equities. “Valuations are much lower in Europe than in the U.S.”