Catch 22...How long is this recession journey going to be?

I don't like to take cheap shots on invesment pro. Take a look at this article written by a CIO in the Star today. I let you read the whole article so that people will not says I quote him out of context.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/15/business/3685978&sec=business

If I read him correctly and rephrase in my own words, unless we see economic data convincingly, there is no way equity market rally can be sustained.

But make no mistake. If one were to analyse the current market euphoria, this is in fact a third bull market that the Dow has experienced over the past six months and, on every occasion, the Dow had risen more than 20% from the lows. However, weak economic data points and failure of the US banking system saw markets making fresh lows yet again. Is it any different this time?

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In essence, what matters most are strong and sustainable rebound in consumer confidence as well as a growth in both the US PMI of the ISM indices.

Until and unless we are able to see some of these data points in a convincing manner, we have not taken the recession journey fully and, hence, we are not there yet.

The author is saying unless you see convincing economic data, then only you can have sustainable rally?

Did the author forget that unless you see sustainable rally, then only we probably have some hopes that the economy will be recovering? (Assuming stock market is a machine discounting future( 6 - 9 month ahead ?))

Let you make your own judgement whether mainstream writing can help or harm you more.