Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Joe Battipaglia, Chief Investment
Strategist, Gruntal & Co.: “This is a very dark moment for the market
in terms of investor psychology and the overall news environment, which
typically coincides with a capitulation, which is a word that many are using
right now. We certainly saw that in the first half-hour of trading today, where
there was no bottom and there was no discrimination between good and bad stocks.
We’ve now had a nice recovery from those day’s lows, and I think that the
fundamental environment is going to provide an atmosphere of improving stock
prices well into the new year.
“I think that the issues of the euro will pass, that energy prices will
begin to moderate some, that the tensions in the Middle East will ease, that
earnings for this third quarter, in the end, will be diagnosed as having been very
good, up some 18%. Having said that, we can then see the market start to move
higher through the rest of the year and into next year and ultimately hit new
highs relatively soon on the Dow and S&P, and beyond that, the Nasdaq
sometime next year.”
Jay Suskind, Director of Trading, Ryan,
Beck & Co.: “We’ve had such an oversold condition, and with the
pessimism out there from a contrarian indicator, you’ve got to expect to start
to get some bounces. Nasdaq held in there very well, even on the opening.
Obviously, it opened down, but it’s been hanging around 3200, even last Thursday
when the Dow was down. It looks like the Nasdaq has, for the most partÂ
from my standpoint, washed out already. But we still have to get through
earnings season, and obviously, there are still a lot of uncertainties out
there.”
Todd Gold, Technical Strategist, Gruntal
& Co.: “We’re certainly encouraged by the rebound in the Nasdaq
Composite. I think it’s grossly premature to try to call a bottom at this point
based on an hour-and-a-half of trading activity. Again, this is certainly
encouraging. We certainly see signs of the capitulation that everyone is looking
for, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we bottom and go straight up from
there. We remain oversold in these indices. We see continued potential for
further rallies without really changing the technical picture. We think as long
as we see negative reactions to companies coming out with at least what seem to
be better-than-expected numbers, that we think we’re going to see some more
downside here.”