On the Ascent

NEW YORK (Real Money) -- Despite a panoply of concerns (economic contraction in Europe, an Italian and Spanish debt crisis that shows few signs of stabilization, renewed questions regarding austerity as a solution to the EU's woes, a potentially upsetting French presidential victory by François Hollande, a cut in the outlook for India's sovereign debt, a sudden and ominous drop in the yield on the 10-year U.S. note (to close to 1.90%), and a technical breakdown in the S&P 500 under important technical moving averages), the market bent this week but did not break.

April's erosion in the U.S. stock market was broadly discussed in the business media, and increasingly, many of the talking heads, strategists and commentators who were thrust upon that stage warned of an imminent market drop. (Many incorrectly used the share price drop in Apple (AAPL) as a confirmation of their negativity and bias.)

It was enough for some investors to panic out of equities -- and many did, as evidenced by the near-4% drop in stocks this month (measured at the low on Monday).

The S&P 500 finally traded under my fair market value calculation of 1360, and I have been slowly expanding my net long exposure, which now stands at the highest level since early January 2012.