Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Tim Heekin, Director of Trading, Thomas
Weisel Partners: “You’re getting possibly a dead-cat bounce off a really
oversold market. People are shaking off the Mideast. They’re shaking off oil
prices. They’re shaking off what looked like a very inflationary PPI and retail
sales number because I just think this market has gotten way oversold. On the
positive side, away from the negatives that people seem to be ignoring, is
that you’ve got cash levels at institutions at 10% to 15%, which are very high.
At hedge funds, I think it’s closer to 50%, and I think that even with the PPI
and retail sales number, you’re starting to have people talking about a possible
easing of rates at the next FOMC meeting in November. I think stock prices have
come down to a level where valuations are starting to be more balanced, and I
think prices have gotten incredibly cheap.”
Terence Gabriel, Stock Market Strategist,
IDEAglobal.com: “The market’s getting a good bounce into the weekend
following surprisingly firm PPI and retail sales data, but it looks like we were
pretty oversold. So even with that news and concerns over Mideast tensions,
we’re just getting a reaction rally because we had fallen so hard, so fast. That
being said, I still think you have to view strength as countertrend, and a
reaction rally is not unreasonable. But I still think there are enough
uncertainties moving forward such that strength will find it hard to stay
sustained with so many concerns over earnings and economic numbers.”
John Roque, Vice President, Arnhold and
S. Bleichroeder: “All of the recent negative action suggests that the
market should bounce. Because either there is a bounce soon, or it will be
1973-1974 or 1980-1982 all over again. (i.e. two years of bear market action)
Because over the last 30 or so years, these are the only comparable periods we
can find in our charts. And besides, by now most people have dismissed the
ill-conceived comparisons to 1994.”