Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Frank Gretz, Market Analyst, Shields
& Co.: “Despite the breakout in Sun Microsystems
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PowerRating) and a new
high in Intel
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PowerRating), the tech sector generally and the semiconductor
sector specifically are having their troubles. There are exceptions, but it’s a
group which has suddenly found that any news is bad news. That, in turn, spells
trouble. When you blow away estimates and can’t rally, it means there are a lot of
anxious sellers, that is, distribution. When you outright miss the estimates, it
means disaster.
“It’s not an easy market. It’s not easy making money, and it’s not easy
to explain. The market on the surface seems fine. The Nasdaq Composite and
S&P broke out and they’ve held those breakouts. The market came down last
Tuesday and Wednesday, but volume contracted, and the market then rallied
Thursday and volume expanded. That’s the way the textbook says it’s supposed to
be. At the same time, however, there are fewer breakouts and little
follow-through to what breakouts there are. It’s almost become a zero-sum game;
a lot of volatility but no real movement.”
Tim Heekin, Director of Trading, Thomas
Weisal Partners: “I see stocks pretty much mixed right now, with no strong bias one
way or the other. My feeling is that the market has probably got a little bit more work to do on the downside and consolidate before they’re going to move
much higher. Second-quarter earnings continue to be strong, with only selective
disappointments. I think Greenspan is out of the way for a while, and I think
the market has a chance to create a base down here.
“For today’s action, I would say that it’s a little bit of a
follow-through from Friday’s selling. It’s mixed to slightly down in my opinion,
and that’s the way my screen is looking. I think that this is healthy, and we’re
going to consolidate down here before moving higher.”
Paul Desmond, President, Lowrey’s
Reports, and institutional research service: “With the S&P Mid-Cap,
Lowrey Unweighted, and NYSE Indexes at recent new highs, and the S&P 500 not
far behind, it would be reasonable to expect a large number of individual stocks
to also be making new highs. But, the number of stocks making new 52-week highs
has hardly budged in recent months, showing no expansion during the recent
rally. Thus, only a very select list of stocks has actually been making real
gains over the past 52 weeks. And there is no evidence at this point that a
broadening of new highs is under way yet.”