In the past few days, I'm being asked more frequently: “What will it take to revive the bull market?” Monday's decline was the fifth consecutive daily drop. The S&P 500 may very well retest its Aug. 25 correction low, which was 12.4% below the record high on May 21. The recent low nearly matched last year's mini-correction low on Oct. 15, which was attributable to fears about the termination of QE4 at the end of that month. There were also concerns about the impact of plunging oil prices and the soaring dollar on earnings.

China has developed a serious capital outflow problem, which has developed and gotten progressively worse over the past year. It most likely reflects the significant slowdown in the country's exports growth, reducing the incentives for foreigners to invest in Chinese manufacturing capacity. In addition, the end of the property boom in China, combined with the anti-corruption campaign, may be causing more Chinese to invest abroad. Let's have a look at the most recent data:

There is widespread concern about the slow growth in non-farm business productivity. Over the past 20 quarters (five years) since Q1 2010, it is up only 0.5% on average during each of the Q1-to-Q1 periods spanning the five years: 0.4% through Q1 2011, 0.9% through Q1 2012, 0.5% through Q1 2013, 0.6% through Q1 2014, and 0.3% through Q1 2015. That's awfully weak growth.

The performance of the U.S. stock market is quite impressive considering that there isn't much of a spring in the latest batch of economic indicators. The winter's ice patch is looking more and more like the spring's soft patch -- all the more reason to expect either one-and-done or none-and-done from the Federal Reserve. Consider the following:

There are risks for the U.S. in a soaring dollar. It gives a competitive advantage to our trading partners. That means it stimulates our imports while depressing our exports. In addition, it depresses the dollar value of profits from overseas. Profits drive employment and capital spending, so weaker profits attributable to the strong dollar can slow the economy down.