Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Gregory Nie, Senior Vice President of
Technical Research, First Union Securities: “In terms of the Comp, roughly
3100 is an area of possible support. We lifted off that area earlier this
morning. That goes back to May and is really minor support. The better chart
support from here would go back to 2900, and to get to that level, you look at
the trading band that we had in the Comp in the middle of last year. Also, 2900
happened to be the area where the rally got rolling last October.
“Overall, the market on Monday and Tuesday looked like it was possibly
trying to establish a potential floor in terms of the Comp. The intraday lows
Monday were only about 4 points apart. We took that out this morning, and it was
the onslaught of sell programs at the opening that helped contribute to that.
It’s a market that’s still struggling. The overall technical picture in our view
does not point to a V type pattern, a down and immediately back up rebound. That
would be a pleasant surprise, but we don’t see that right now.”
Robert Robbins, Market Strategist, The
Robinson-Humphrey Co.: “I think the market is a fabulous buying opportunity
here. The S&P 500 is around 11% off of its all-time high today, and that
tends to be the dividing line between corrections and bear markets. I do not see
this being a bear market decline, which would make it now be like 1998, 1990,
1987, and 1993. Those are the only four times in the last 18 years that we have
had significantly bigger problems and bigger declines than we have had now. I
don’t see those kinds of problems.
“Inflation is in control. The inflation outlook is getting better.
Finance stocks are leading, which is important. A lot of times they were lagging
when we had bigger problems. Like 1995, you’ve got the best of both worlds with
good earnings growth, though a bit slower, inflation in control, and I’m looking
for the S&P 500 to go up about 21% between now and year end without going
down more than about 2% from where we are now.”