Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Brian Finnerty, Managing Director, C.E.
Unterberg Towbin: “I’m very encouraged by the market today. It’s all IBM.
Just the fact that IBM stayed with their guidance and didn’t cut anything is
encouraging. They said how strong their server business is. They feel good about
the hardware side. They said the server side was good and software was in line,
and that tells us that we don’t have a disaster in the computer business.
Tonight we get Sun’s earnings, and look, if IBM had good stuff to say then Sun
is going to have great stuff to say because IBM is weaker than Sun is in UNIX,
and IBM’s UNIX business was strong. So things are not looking as bad as
everybody thought. I cautiously think we’re in pretty good shape here.”
Alan Ackerman, Market Strategist,
Fahnstock & Co.: “The market continues to be reasonably mixed. The U.S.
economic slowdown is of concern to individual investors and portfolio managers
as well, and some companies are not only reporting a slowdown in the quarter
just reported but appear to be extending their vulnerability with questionable
quarters ahead. That’s certainly a yellow blinking light. Also of interest is
what foreign investors are thinking over the last week or so. Their focus is on
the U.S. Government transition, and foreign economists and investors are
carefully monitoring the prospective mood during the inauguration and hoping to
see a transition without any meaningful disruption or distraction.”
John Roque, Vice President, Arnhold and
S. Bleichroeder: “Everybody is hot and heavy on calling a bottom in Intel.
They say that because Intel didn’t go lower despite a less than rosy outlook
then that’s got to be a good sign that the stock didn’t go down on bad news.
Check this out though, if you are prepared to trade more than you probably want
and if you are prepared to sit with INTC for a reasonably long time (the last
time INTC built a base was for 16 months between Aug. ’97 and Nov. ’98) then the
semis are the place to be.”