Merrill Analyst Bartels Advises Staying Long, but Not for Much Longer

Mary Ann Bartels, a technical analyst at Banc of America Securities-Merrill Lynch and an Against the Grain favorite, said in a report issued Monday that she expects the stock market to continue to work back toward the January high. After that, though, she is looking for "a deeper correction."

Bartels highlights several worrying divergences. Measures of market breadth and momentum have not kept pace with the performance of popular indexes, for instance. Together they suggest that the stock market looks a lot better than it feels.

Noting, too, that stocks tend to peak in March during years that end in 0 and years with midterm elections, she said, "All this points to a deeper correction later in the year."

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