Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Jim Volk, Co-Director of Institutional
Trading, D.A. Davidson: “We’re seeing a continuation of what we’ve had
every day except for the day Greenspan spoke before the Senate when they had
what I call an ambush and not a rally. I think these markets are very concerned,
especially in the technology area and most of that’s over the counter. The
numbers going forward are not going to be good. Nokia disappoints. We can rattle
off a half-a-dozen in the last couple of days of major companies.Â
“The forecast going forward is that things are slowing down. I think
that the people are starting to sober up on that, and just like Amazon, finally
people are realizing that the emperor has no clothes. Everybody’s been avoiding
the fact that their revenues are slowing down and that they can’t make any
money. So now it finally came to the surface and there are some downgrades
today. So I think in general there’s a very cautious to negative tone in the
market, even though the Dow Jones has rallied a little bit.”
Harry Laubscher, Market Analyst, Tucker
Anthony: “The Dow Industrial Average once again is showing that people are
getting concerned and are moving into the value-oriented type of stocks. We
would expect to see over the next four to six days some strength coming back
into the Nasdaq type stocks, but in our opinion, since the Nasdaq is into a
major bear market, periods of strength should be used to take increased
protective measures. The technology area is probably the most susceptible to
further weakness after some nearby strength. By and large you’ve got to be
extremely cautious in markets like this.”
Robin Griffiths, Chief Technical Analyst,
HSBC: “There is a seasonal deviation in world markets. They usually go dull
at this time of year. The reason is that people drive markets and they tend to
go on holiday. From the chart, markets seem to be sulking, and they certainly
don’t look well. They are a lot like Groucho Marx’s horse in A Day at the
Races; ‘Either he’s dead or my watch has stopped.’
“After the summer doldrums, the U.S. market will rise again and go up
through the presidential election. The new man’s honeymoon should keep things
strong until the new year, but from then on there will be an increased
likelihood of more rate hikes to cool inflationary expectations. The bear part
of the cycle will commence, but it will still be in the presence of a steep
secular uptrend.”
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