THEME: STOCK MARKET CALL
Thomas McManus has had the most accurate call on the stock market since I started tracking sentiment. He was bearish on the market pretty much through the whole ride. He turned bullish in Nov 2002 and pretty much rode it all the way up until now. I respect his call very much.

"Please do not let yourself be swayed by politicians posing as economists: Ignore their siren song that 'we're enjoying the strongest economy in 20 years,'" Thomas McManus, equity portfolio strategist at Bank of America, recently wrote.

McManus, who lowered his recommended equity allocation to 60% from 65% in mid-June, noted the 1.4 million gain in non-farm payrolls over the past nine months results in a 1.5% annualized growth rate vs. the long-term annual trend of almost 2.2%. "Some recovery," he quipped, noting that if Friday's June payroll report meets consensus of 250,000, it will "only match the [long-term] trend."

Market participants are in virtual unanimity in expecting a 25-basis-point rate hike Wednesday -- with fed fund futures predicting less than 10% odds for an additional quarter-point. But McManus offered a variant view: "Given the still mixed data regarding the strength of the recovery, perhaps we should not be surprised if the Federal Reserve were to pass on the opportunity to boost rates on Wednesday."