Consumer confidence numbers came out this morning and showed a dip in expectations among consumers on jobs and income.

According the Reuters:

"The surveys' overall index on consumer sentiments slipped to 69.5 in early April -- the lowest in five months. This was below the 73.6 reading seen at the end of March and the 75.0 median forecast of analysts polled by Reuters."

"The survey's gauge of current economic conditions slipped to 80.7 in early April, the lowest since December. This was below the 82.4 in late March and 84.0 forecast by analysts."

It is interesting that while consumer expectations have weakened the stock market has strengthened. In fact investment sentiment is now wildly bullish as investors bought stocks earlier this week excited over positive earnings news from Intel.

Today though Google, GE, and BAC are all down this morning after they reported their earnings before the open.

Despite the rising market some experts share the feelings of the average consumer and are skeptical of the economic recovery. According to the managers of the Comstockfunds:

"The near-euphoria in the market over the perceived surge in the economy is highly misleading. The year-over-year percentage increases we are seeing in various economic indicators are only an indication of how far down we were. It reminds us of the title of a book published a number of years ago entitled Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me. All that's happened is that the economy is less bad, but it is certainly not strong. Let's look at two key examples---retail sales and industrial production."

"Yesterday's report on March retail sales was greeted with banner headlines proclaiming the comeback of the consumer. Typical was the Wall Street Journal's assertion that "Shoppers turned up in surprising force". Yes, it's true that retail sales in March were up 8.6% from the low a year earlier. But this was still 3.6% below the peak sales in May 2008, almost two years ago. Moreover, at current levels sales are actually still slightly below the level reached back in December 2006 over three years earlier. The really significant fact is that over the last 43 years retail sales have hardly ever gone down at all, even in recessions. So the fact that sales have "soared" to a level reached over three years ago is hardly a harbinger of consumer strength."

"The same kind of reasoning applies to industrial production (IP). March IP was up 6.1% from the June trough. That may sound good in the headlines, but it was still down a significant 9.1% from the top in December 2007. Moreover, IP in March was at about the same level as it was over 10 years ago, back in December 1999. Never since the depression in the 1930s has IP failed to exceed a level established 10 years earlier," says the guys at Comstock Funds.

In my opinion now is the time evaluate any stock tips you may have been holding and see which ones deserve to be held on to and if there are any that should be sold. You want to sell weak stocks and bad investments after big rallies like we have had - seven weeks of market gains in a row now - so you can free up that money to be put to use by stocks with more potential once they line up for a good buy point.

No I do not think we are in a bear market. But you need to actively keep an eye on things if you really want to win at the investment game.