A rising stock market must climb a "wall of worries". When everyone is positive about shares, the time has come for the stock market to fall. The reverse is more or less true. A falling stock market has to deal with a 'wall of hope' along the way. When hope is lost, all seems lost. But at the moment when no one is happy anymore, the moment has come for the stock market to rise. After all, the only possible change for market participants is that they become more positive. After seven or eight weeks (depending on the index), it finally happened on 20 May and all hope seemed lost. The sentiment was so negative that the stock market was bound to rise. Not that there was any good news, just the fact that the bad news was no worse than feared was enough.What is striking is the still widely suppo