Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:Â
Robert Wibblesman, Portfolio Manager,
Strome Investment Management: “I thought that we had had a rolling bottom
over October and much of November where even though the sentiment figures
and the anecdotal evidence of panic were missing (like the high put/call ratio
and Investors Intelligence numbers coming down) that maybe because the Nasdaq
had been down more than 50% and because we had so many days of lousy market,
that maybe that replaced the notion of having to have a cataclysmic kind of
bottom.
“And so, when they bounced a week and a half ago and really had
historically high days of advances, I thought that maybe with all the election
stuff over that it might be time to come back to the market. So I subsequently
had to sell what I bought, and what I see now is that the put/call ratio and the
Investors Intelligence continue to show complacency and an unwillingness to
panic and just throw them away.”Â
Robin Griffiths, Chief Technical
Strategist, HSBC: “The U.S. economy is slowing down. This was deliberate
policy because it had been growing too fast. However, an oil shock has now
ensued and it has slowed too fast and if nothing is done, a hard or crash landing
is likely. This increases the probability that action will be forthcoming but
there are long time lags involved. In addition, the unprecedented delay in
electing a new President has increased uncertainty. Now that this issue has been
solved there probably will be a bear closing rally and a run up into the
new year to inauguration day, although a Bush win is already partly
discounted.”
Brian Belski, Fundamental Market
Strategist, U.S. Bancorp/Piper Jaffray: “Regarding fund flows for this
week, some of the negatives we see are that outflows from growth funds are
negative for a second week in a row and are not a positive, neither are the
excess outflows from equity funds in general, coming at a time when the market
is trying to solidify (i.e. the Nasdaq’s 10.3% rebound last week). We would have
much rather preferred to see outflows peaking while the broader stock market was
experiencing deeper selling pressure.”