Moderate correction provoked a sharp drop in bullishness
The S&P 500 recently had its biggest pullback since March, though only about 5% from its early September all-time high and thus quite mild in the context of normal market volatility historically. The Russell 2000 has not hit a new high since mid-March but was also only about 5% off that peak, having been mostly range-bound since then. Major indices have since recovered much of those declines in the last week and are again approaching their highs.