Corporate earnings should be picking up at the same time, and the stock market, because it looks to the future, is going to be going up well in advance of that. I really think sometime in the spring the market will turn around. As for comparing the U.S. economy with the downwardly spiraling Japanese economy, analysts note a host of differences. Banks were heavily exposed through mortgages and commercial-property loans. The U.S. bubble was in a narrow sector of stocks.
Healthy banks are vital to a healthy economy.
Macro issues aside, many stocks now trade at bargain prices. Sell now and you risk selling at the bottom. Ironically, a lot of tech stocks now trade higher relative to this year's earnings than they did even before the slide. So they still look expensive. But that's because near term earnings assumptions are falling faster than the stock price.