Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Phil Roth, Chief Technical Market
Analyst, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter: "I think the action in the market
since October is very much the normal seasonal pattern. You had institutional
tax selling in October, and a majority of stocks bottomed in October. We had a
rebound and then another sell-off prior to Thanksgiving when you got the public
tax selling. We had a sharp rebound briefly and then another dip in
mid-December. That’s when you get the end of tax selling, so I think the pattern
is very, very much in the normal seasonal pattern. Old economy stocks bottomed
in October and tested successfully in November, and now we are seeing the
residual selling going on in the so-called new economy stocks like tech. I think
those are beginning to bottom out now, kind of one by one, so I expect the
market to be higher in the early part of the new year."
Charles Payne, President,
WallStreetStrategies.com: "So far today I’m impressed with the way the
market is acting. We came into the session with the SBC warning, a Seibel
downgrade, Ciena down 10 points on news of acquiring a private company, and a
warning from Dollar Tree. Across the board, there was a bunch of stuff that was
cause for concern, and the market was indicating down but managed to fight back
pretty well. That’s not to say we are out of the woods, but again it’s
exhibiting some resiliency and it looks like a bottom is being established. A
very jagged bottom, but nonetheless, still a bottom. Regarding the Fed, my brain
says they’ll go to neutral and my heart is pleading for them to lower
rates."
John Roque, Vice President, Arnhold and
S. Bleichroeder: "Despite the continued specter of bad loans and slowing
economic growth, the interest sensitive sector (banks and financials) have
proven, so far, that they are driven more by perception than reality. And it’s
no stretch to say that the perception is that the Fed’s going to lower rates and
‘as long as I can get 20% out of a stock’ damn the potential reality of the bad
loans and slowing eco tag-team."