I suspect there is no greater example of “summer doldrums” than the week surrounding the Fourth of July, especially when the holiday falls mid-week. From my standpoint, I certainly have received my share of “out of office” auto-responses on emails. For bullish investors, this is usually a time for caution, as any apparently dominant psychology of the market can be misleading. For bearish traders, it’s hard to get much momentum going.

The world has been watching every peep, sniffle, or innuendo associated with any voting member of the FOMC. What is the future of the latest in their ongoing market manipulation, in which money is printed to buy bonds to hold down interest rates, spur corporate borrowing, and artificially inflate stocks? Lately, that’s all investors have cared about.

Here in Santa Barbara, we refer to the annual summer ritual of heavy marine layer engulfing the coastline for much of the day as the “June gloom.” It can be frustrating to beach-going visitors since there are otherwise no clouds, and the inland areas are brilliantly sunny.

Despite an environment of uninspiring economic reports, stocks have regained their footing once again. Last week, bulls found that they simply couldn’t ignore the Boston bombing like all the other worrisome news, but the quick capture of the perpetrators has removed the domestic terrorism cloud.

Market timing is tough duty. Even as stocks have risen inexorably and we all knew it couldn’t go up in a straight line, still picking tops is hard. You can be wrong for a long time, and either lose your shirt shorting the market, or miss out on big gains by staying out.

Well, you gotta hand it to the bears; they are pulling out all stops in their effort to derail the bull train, just as the S&P 500 tries to eclipse its all-time high. This time they trotted out the tiny republic of Cyprus (pop. 1.1 million) and its battle with the EU over the terms of its financial bailout. Steal a big chunk of depositors’ accounts?