Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Barry Hyman, Chief Investment Strategist,
Weatherly Securities: “You’ll never get anything more positive than a
market that shrugs off bad news and rallies. It’s strictly related to the tech
market right now, in terms of shrugging off Cisco, Nokia, and Motorola. Seeing a
battered group in the telecoms start to rally supports the belief that there’s
value in the market in technology. That’s the positive story. The negative story
is that this market and the Nasdaq is rallying on the backs of small to
mid-caps, and the big-cap players are not performing. The Suns are up a little,
but you’re really getting the performance out of the beaten down and devastated
small to mid-cap sector. I always look at a market coming out of a bottom, if
indeed this is a bottom which is very possible, it’s got to begin with the more
liquid big-cap stocks because that’s what attracts the money.”
Brian Conroy, Head of Listed Trading,
J.P. Morgan: “We’re seeing strength across the board. We’re seeing a rally
back in some of the technology shares, especially the software companies. Also,
the financial sector continues to lead the market higher as a result of last
week’s move by the Fed. They tend to be an early moving group as a result of an
action like we had last week. The fact we are seeing the turnaround in the
technology sector for the second day in a row I think is very healthy for the
market.”
Barry Berman, Managing Director of Equity
Trading: “I think we’ve been seeing a good rally going into another Fed
meeting at the end of the month. I think people are just looking at some stocks
that got very, very cheap, and they’re trying to pick up some bargains. I think
the fact the Fed has started to ease and has indicated that they are concerned
about the economy has maybe given people the feeling or confidence that we’ve
seen the worst in economic numbers or at least that the Fed will be responsive
to any more weakness.”