Well, the votes are in. We’re not talking Obama or Clinton or McCain or any of the dozen others running for president in 2008 but the stock market.

Market lore is that as the first five trading days of January go, so goes the month of January and as January goes, so goes the year. That makes the outlook pretty grim for bulls since the S&P 500 Index recorded one of its poorest early January marks ever by sinking more than 5%.

Will this little bit of market legend hold up this year? Time will tell, of course, but it has held up about two-thirds of the time over the last 35 years. However, this is a presidential election year, which is supposed to be good to stock market bulls, and it is a year ending in 8, which is also supposed to be an up year for stocks.

We’ll be watching how January plays out . . .