Weekly Sentiment Survey: A Bit Less Bearish but No Less Cautionary

Jason Meshnick on June 23, 2026

Part 1: TheStreet Pro’s Sentiment Survey Results

Question 1

Direction: Over the next 2-4 weeks, how do you feel about the S&P 500?

Score: 0

Commentary: Of the 9 contributors who responded, 4 were bulls, 2 were neutral, 2 were bearish, and 1 was very bearish. Overall, with the expansion in bulls and decrease in bears, that puts us solidly in the mixed camp!

Question 2

Positioning: How are you currently positioned?

Score: -1

Commentary: While we have an even number of bulls and bears (4 each, with 1 neutral), one of our bears continues with a high conviction on the bearish side and is net short. That conviction moves our overall positioning to the short side. Sorry, bulls, but if you disagree, one of you will have to get aggressively long.

Question 3

Risk: How would you rate overall market risk?

Score: -3

Commentary: While the overall market risk is believed to be lower this week than last, our team leans bearish. Why? Well, just 2 people believe the market is low risk, and 3 are neutral. 4 members believe that risk is elevated, and 1 of those feels it’s very high risk.

Question 4

Opportunity: Do you anticipate an increase or decrease in risk levels?

Score: -5

Commentary: The team remains in the camp that risk will be on the rise, though they might not agree on exactly when. Just 1 member thinks risk is declining, while 3 see no change in risk. Among the remaining 5, 4 believe risk will increase and 1 sees a significant risk increase.

Question 5

Portfolio Activity

Score: 0

Commentary: Let’s just say that our team is sitting on the fence when it comes to portfolio activity. 6 members of the team are neutral. 2 are rotating into more aggressive sectors and 1 is a broad seller. The “broad seller” selection carries double the weight of a “rotation” selection and cancels out the score of the 2 members rotating into aggressive sectors.

Part 2: Qualitative Questions

Are the major stock indexes broken? In what way?

The good news is that 5 of our 9 members do not think that the major indexes are broken, at least no more than usual. However, even a couple of those people think that caution is warranted because valuations are off the charts.

The other 3 who responded to this question say, heck yeah, the indexes are broken. Why? It’s the impact of the mega-cap, MAG7-type stocks. If you’re a Dougie fan, he spells it out here in the Daily Diary.

In the interest of full disclosure, I asked the question because I believe that passive investing as well as leveraged ETFs and options trading is skewing the indexes towards momentum and away from valuation. The purpose of a stock market is to foster healthy business investment and that’s no longer the game that’s being played.

What companies will have the biggest impact next week? Why?

SpaceX ($SPCX), of course. The market cap on this one is pure silliness (my opinion), and 1 team member said it’s ridiculous that it surpassed Amazon ($AMZN) by market cap.

Semiconductors, including Micron ($MU): 1 person mentioned that this group is the most important because it’s so hyper-extended. MU will announce earnings on Wednesday.

AI companies and Apple will matter, too.

What stock are you most bullish on? Why?

Here are some ideas from our team:

Intel ($INTC): Increased focus on the company’s involvement with Elon Musk and TeraFab

Haverty ($HVT): No debt, solid chart, and a 5.3% dividend

Marvell ($MRVL): Again, it’s a favorite holding in our TheStreet Pro’s Portfolio

Silicon Motion ($SIMO): No reason given

Cannabis stocks: Improving fundamentals, favorable changes in legislation

Biotechs and small-caps because money is flowing to them from out of the MAG7

What stock are you most bearish on? Why?

AI-related infrastructure. It’s over-owned and cap spending cycle will not yield a reasonable ROIC.

Housing: Affordability vs. homebuilder market pressure and rates higher for longer

What economic data are you watching most closely? Why?

Inflation and jobs were the two most cited. On the inflation front, people are specifically looking at the Flash June PMI. Additionally, January 2027 WTI, looking to see if oil begins to drop as Hormuz opens.

Bitcoin, too. It just seems “off” right now.

What technical indicator are you watching most closely? Why?

Semiconductor Index: It’s only moved like this one other time in history-right before the Dotcom Bust.

Technical strength indicators in various sectors.

Generally, people are watching for trend and momentum in the major indexes.

Category: Market Commentary
Tag: AMZN, Features and Commentary, HVT, Indexes, INTC, Market Sentiment, MRVL, MU, Newsletter Midday, SIMO, SPCX

Posted by Jason Meshnick

Jason Meshnick, CMT, is the CEO of TheStreet Pro. Jason also started TheStreet's Filthy Rich Animal newsletter for newer investors. If you're not on the list, you can click here to subscribe. Jason has over 30 years of industry experience across Wall Street, Fintech, university-level teaching, and financial journalism. 20 Years in Fintech Before joining TheStreet, Jason spent nearly 20 years in FinTech, developing dynamically generated AI investment analyses. His work was available at Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, ETrade, and nearly every major online broker in the US and Canada. However, his real passion arose when he was asked to write a weekly educational investing newsletter for his coworkers. Topics included why vampires are so rich and what car racing can teach you about investing. These have been republished in Filthy Rich Animal. Learning about investing should be fun! Jason created the Fear & Greed Index for CNN Business. Although he jokes that it's his claim to no fame (it's famous, he's not), the model for understanding investor behavior has become incredibly popular and is used by everyone from hedge funds to individual investors. Lecturing at the University Level Teaching his coworkers led to a role at CU Boulder, where Jason taught classes in Investments and Corporate Finance. He's no longer teaching full-semester classes but continues to lecture on technical analysis and other investing topics. 10 Years of Wall Street Trading Experience Jason spent a decade working on Wall Street as a trader and market maker, where he learned all about market microstructure and investor psychology. During his first five years on the Street, he traded mostly closed-end funds and utility stocks. Later, as a market maker, he managed large caps like ExxonMobil, Texas Instruments, Disney, American Express, and Wells Fargo. When Not Thinking About Markets Jason’s other passion is cars. He earned the distinction of being the slowest SCCA road racing champion in recent history when he won his region's Spec Miata class despite having never led a race. Jason knows more about old sports cars than anybody has any right to and is always energized by a drive in his classic Porsche 911. He is Editor-at-Large for Autoblog, and his writing on cars can be found here. Jason is also a passionate skier. He taught skiing at Vermont's Mount Snow for six seasons when he was younger. While Jason lives in Colorado he prefers Utah's fluffier snow. Jason spends his spare time with his wife in Boulder, Colorado, and frequently visits his kids in college.

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