Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Barry Hyman, Chief Investment Strategist,
Weatherly Securities: “The reaction to fairly substantial forward looks in
semiconductors and optical networking really could have been a lot worse. It
indicates that the discounting process that’s looking at the second half of the
year just might be a little premature as the fundamental situation shows little
sign of stability. At the same time, however, there seems to be this underlying
horde of money ready to buy these beaten down cyclical and technology stocks.
Even though we are down about 2% I would have expected a lot more downside on a
day like today after such a decent run-up in the Nasdaq.”
Jay Suskind, Director of Trading, Ryan
Beck & Co.: “Today is kind of a directionless day even though we are on
the downside. I think that it being a Friday and seeing that we have had a good
run-up over the last few weeks, the market is just taking a pause. The market is
also looking toward the Fed meeting next week, and people are kind of treading
water and debating whether we are going to get a quarter or half point move in
rates. Lastly, when Greenspan said yesterday that we’re basically at zero growth
now, did that scare the market a bit and make people think that they maybe
bought some of these stocks too soon?”
Brian Belski, Fundamental Market
Strategist, U.S. Bancorp/Piper Jaffray: “We saw the third week in a row of
$1 billion-plus equity fund inflows as $7.2 billion poured into funds. We
believe the Nasdaq’s solidification this month has helped fuel renewed fund
flows into growth-dominated instruments, as witnessed by five weeks in a row of
strong growth fund flows. The data seems to suggest a discipline shift from
value to growth investing.”