Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Greg Nie, Senior Vice President of
Technical research, First Union Securities: “Our bottom-line conclusion is
that the market is still on track for a Spring rally. We’re seeing some small
steps forward and, for example, in terms of the Nasdaq Composite it looks like
now we’re trying to establish the first baby step or two toward establishing a
higher low in tandem with the January low of around 2300. By establishing the
higher low I think you can start to consider drawing some short-term trend lines
that are bullish for the market. There’s some improvement there. There’s some
improvement underneath the surface in terms of the contraction in new lows.
“The Dow is trying to bump its head up against important resistance at
11,000 to 11,300, but it’s hanging in there. That’s still in a decent pattern.
So I think that the market probably needs a little more technical leg work, if
you will, or preparation work, and that is probably going to lead to some kind
of a roller coaster or a market that is swinging back and forth, but there
probably won’t be a lot of net change over the short term. Still headed for a
spring rally, and still feel that positioning versus trading is the best way to
go with this market.”
Harry Laubscher, Market Analyst, Tucker
Anthony: “It looks like the technology sector is attempting to resume
leadership. That would be good for the entire market for the short term at
least. Once the technology sector is leading, that provides some additional
strength for the listed stocks. While they do have a long way to go before they
start giving some strong buy signals, which would come at about 3000, I would
expect that over the next several months you’re still going to see the Nasdaq
out-perform the Dow. So we are encouraging people who are traders, not
investors, to look at some of the technology stocks. We still think we are in a
secular bear market and that it will likely resume sometime in the summer.”