Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Brian G. Belski, Fundamental Market
Strategist, U.S. Bancorp/Piper Jaffray: “We’re seeing too much complacency
and too much agreement as to the market’s trend, and so we feel the potential
for disappointment is high. We are growing more and more troubled with the
increasing agreement amongst the herd that stocks will undoubtedly be rising
during the fourth quarter.
“While we also subscribe to this train of thought, the contrarian in us
cannot help but speculate that a bump in the road may come about as a result of
the growing optimism. Therefore, while we are not attempting to time the market,
we would certainly be focusing on position building in solid and recognizable
names; stocks that that will lead any subsequent and sustainable rally, in our
opinion anyway.”
Paul Rabbitt, President,
RabbittAnalytics.com: “Our forecasts are flattering but still positive.
Monetary factors are positive. Psychology is still too optimistic, and
technically, stocks are in a rally that began August 1 and are drifting up
toward overbought territory. Welcome now to the summer doldrums. Many
professionals are vacationing and volume will lighten up for the next few weeks.
The Fed meeting was a non-event, and we are in the calm period before third
quarter earnings pre-announcements begin.
“Since January 1, growth and value have battled for leadership. We are
opportunistic growth investors and are now tilting to value by applying a value
filter to our final growth stock picks. Growth outperformed value investing
since 1993 and has become an over-exploited style. The real opportunities are
now in value stocks. The inconsistency in our approach right now is that we
still believe technology, which is a growth sector, will participate as long as
productivity drives the economy ahead.”
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