Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Robert Wibbelsman, Portfolio Manager,
Strome Investment Management: “The last three weeks or so, we’ve had a lot
of rocky stuff in the over-the-counter market, and it seems like yesterday it
was resolved favorably, where people started to come back to the tech names that
had been abandoned. For a while, the NYSE has been acting better than the Nasdaq,
and it seems now to be reverting back to the Nasdaq names. The market has really
been led for a long, long time by companies with very high top-end, bottom-line
growth. It went through a very rocky period this year, with the Nasdaq getting
killed in April and May and then rallying, only to get hit again a couple of
weeks ago.
“But, still, I believe that in a bull market you don’t change leadership
very easily. I think the proclivity is still toward the strong, top-line growers
who are also bringing it down to the bottom-line. I don’t think that will
change, and I think the market is coming back to that notion. My feeling is that
we’re trying to get the high, high growth stocks going again, so for now I am
just giving the market a little of the benefit of the doubt for a while. There
might be another shockwave in that area in late September or early October, but
for now, I guess I’m just giving the market the benefit of the doubt
temporarily.”
Andy Madoff, Director of Nasdaq Trading,
Madoff Securities: “We’re seeing some definite softness in the listed
markets. Nasdaq is showing selected strength. Semis are strong. Healthy buying,
obviously, in Sun Micro. Ciena is again strong on the heels of yesterday’s
extraordinary gains, and we’re just seeing continued strength in some of the
recent Nasdaq stocks that have had good earnings. But overall, it’s just
continued light-summer volume.”