Overheard On The Street

Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:

Tim Heekin, Director of Trading, Thomas
Weisel Partners: “It’s a long overdue lift. It’s also corresponding to a
day that I don’t see anything as fundamental. There’s nothing really creating
this lift except for the fact that they’re tired of having them down. I think
the selling pressure has abated some, and buyers are a little bit stronger.
Technically we hit a really nice bottom last week in both the S&P and the
Nasdaq Comp, and this is a nice mild rally today. In the last five or six trading
days, it’s felt to me like we’ve put in some small building blocks to building a
base. I would be more in the camp that we are creating a U-shaped bottom rather
than a V-shaped bottom, and I think the U-shaped bottom is healthier for this
market.”

Brian Belski, Fundamental Market
Strategist: “In technology, yes earnings estimates will continue to
decline. But we believe the market has over compensated for the sector’s
weakness, especially with a majority of stocks trading below their five-year
average forward PE based on next year’s EPS. We believe the broader market trend
of EPS turnaround and value hunting will follow through to the tech sector at
some point this year, especially as current turnaround favorites like energy
become more expensive.”

Frank Gretz, Market Analyst, Shields
& Co.: “We
remain convinced the Dow will have its day of reckoning, but it also seems that
Greenspan/ the economy have something to do with the lack of fear as well.
On CNBC everyone will recite to you that every time the Fed starts to
ease, the market and the economy do better six to 12 months later.
And, Greenspan is the man, he’s saved us before.
That, however, is a bit of a sensitive subject in that, to our thinking,
he helped create the bubble.
By blowing up the money supply at the end of 1999 because of the Y2K
fear, he really created the tech bubble in the first quarter of 2000.
That, we think, will come home to roost but for now, they’re all
counting on Greenspan, lower rates, and a pickup in the economy in the second
half.
We have our doubts.”