Execs Sell Stock in Fastest Pace in Two Years

This can't be a good sign for the stock market:

Executives at US companies are taking advantage of the biggest stock-market rally in 71 years to sell their shares at the fastest pace since credit markets started to seize up two years ago.

Insiders of Standard & Poor's 500 Index companies were net sellers for 14 straight weeks as the gauge rose 36 per cent, data compiled by InsiderScore.com show. Amgen Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Sharer and five other officials sold $US8.2 million of stock. Christopher Donahue, the CEO of Federated Investors Inc., and his brother, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Donahue, offered the most in three years.

Sales by CEOs, directors and senior officers have accelerated to the highest level since June 2007, two months before credit markets froze, as the S&P 500 rebounded from its 12-year low in March. The increase is making investors more skittish because executives presumably have the best information about their companies' prospects.

"If insiders are selling into the rally, that shows they don't expect their business to be able to support current stock- price levels," said Joseph Keating, the chief investment officer of Raleigh, North Carolina-based RBC Bank, the unit of Royal Bank of Canada that oversees $US33 billion in client assets. "They're taking advantage of this bounce and selling into it."

The execs are expecting a double-dip recession and they're taking advantage of the brief bounce before the next dive. Look out below!