Overheard On The Street

Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:

Paul Rabbitt, President,
RabbittAnalytics.com: “This is a good stock environment. Investors have
rotated their style towards value. Our review of indicators shows that July was
a solid value month as was March-April-May. The rotation takes the pressure off
a very tired theme like infinite-value Internet stocks and explores new
under-owned areas of the market. This allows a continuation of the bull.
Moreover, the Fed is very likely to be a complete non-event Tuesday. It is
increasingly certain the Fed is done tightening. In addition, the higher oil
prices have the same dampening effect on the U.S. economy as a 0.5% rate hike.
We think the next rate change will be lower in the second half of 2001.”

Todd Gold, Technical Strategist, Gruntal
& Co.: “Basically, I see a very illiquid market today ahead of the Fed
meeting tomorrow. Intel has, as of yet, failed to break through 74 resistance
intraday, which we believe is needed in order to see any further upside in the
semiconductor index which we believe is over-extended at the current time. We
would continue to buy the financials on the weakness and use the current
strength in the semiconductors for aggressive traders to clear positions.”

Michael O’Boyle, Managing Director Nasdaq
Trading, Equitable Securities: “There’s a lot of vacillation out there in
the market just because of Greenspan’s possible comments tomorrow. Techs are
trading sideways. We’re seeing some of the banks acting a little softer, and the
hospital companies just seem to be just holding in there. It’s just very quiet
across the board, and it’s going to remain that way until tomorrow.”