Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Alfred Goldman, Chief Market Strategist,
A.G. Edwards & Sons: "The market is still waiting anxiously on a short-term basis to find out who our President is going to be. It
looks like it will probably be Bush, and if so, we would look for a victory
celebration for a couple of days, and then a little pullback, and then the
market will settle into a general uptrend until mid-January. If it’s Gore, look
for a couple of days down and then take it up into January. Then, as we get into
January, Alan Greenspan will take over."
Scott Bleier, Chief Investment
Strategist, Prime Charter Limited: "There was another bearish call on
technology today, and a lot of lowered expectations are pretty much being built
into the high-flying technology names. The fact is that the Nasdaq is more
volatile, has gone down a much larger percentage, and the major Dow Jones and
S&P averages are holding up a lot better with a lot less volatility. This
means that money is searching for a relatively safe home, but it’s not leaving
the market en masse. Cash is building up on the sidelines. We are making a saw tooth
bottoming pattern, and this will go on, probably until the end of the year even
though we would have loved to have seen a year-end significant rally. It’s just
that everything’s a trade right now."
John Roque, Vice President, Arnhold and
S. Bleichroeder: "Most everyone still wants to buy tech. Everyone. Even
investors who specialize in other sectors — other bullish sectors! — want to
buy tech. And because everyone wants to buy tech it becomes increasingly
difficult for us to believe tech will rally broadly or strongly. So, while
everyone wants to know ‘Has tech bottomed?’ the more important question is ‘Can
tech rally big if it has bottomed?,’ and our answer continues to be No."