Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Paul Rabbitt, President,
RabbittAnalytics.com: “This is not the time to panic, raise cash, or short
the market. Three manufacturing processes are bloody messes in the making with
pleasant outcomes. They include the manufacturing of sausage, the making of
laws, and portfolio management. For portfolio management, this is one of those
times. We raised a caution flag September 1. Two weeks ago we suggested that
week would be a watershed week. We were early. We are still bullish and continue
to buy.
“Bullish sentiment has plunged (a good buy signal) to its lowest level
since the May correction bottom. Both the public/specialist short sales and the
put/call volume ratios have moved to reflect rising fear.”
Michael Lyons, Senior Trader, Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter: “You’ve got a couple of key earnings coming in
tomorrow with Motorola and Yahoo, so they’re kind of keying in on those two. The
selling has kind of eased up a little bit, but you look across the board here
and technology is just getting beaten up. It’s one of those days where there’s
not a lot of people in, and it’s just kind of drifting at the moment. There’s no
compelling reason to be in there buying stocks. The financials again are getting
tattooed, especially the brokers. Later this week the earnings will be filtering
in, and until we see some of those numbers, there is just not going to be a lot of
interest in stocks.”
Brian Belski, Fundamental Market
Strategist, U.S. Bancorp/Piper Jaffray: “Several high growth areas of the
past three to five years are experiencing slower growth rates. Does that
mean that technology and the New Economy are going away? No. But, we believe it
has more to do with the normal maturation process that every product, company,
or economy goes through than the market is realizing. Frankly, companies cannot
grow at 75% to 100% forever. But, at 25%, 30%, or even 50% growth rates, are
these companies still growing faster than the market? Yes. Last time we checked
it was still a relative game.”