Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Greg Parise, General Partner, Dorado
Capital Management: “I think that we’re seeing almost text book action.
With Cisco’s negative numbers, relative to what could have occurred, I think it
was widely expected and the stock held in there fairly strongly. I think people
are still realizing here mid-way through the first quarter that fundamentals are
still deteriorating and getting worse. People are realizing there still could be
a shoe to drop.
“While the market is trying to find a base here and look out 3, 6 or 9
months, it seems to me that we’re finally starting to stabilize as we see the
market attempt to discount how poor the fundamentals are. Then you throw in the
fact that the Fed is on the market’s side, and I just think this is a good solid
part of a bottoming process.”
Kevin Caron, Associate Strategist,
Gruntal & Co.: “The equity markets for the month of January turned in a
spectacular performance. The leadership groups for January were exactly those
groups that lagged last year. They are the technology and telecommunication
service stocks. On the other hand, the defensive companies fell to the bottom of
the list. Furthermore, the high yield bond index had its best January of any
January of any January in the last 10 years.
“This suggests to us that the investor still has an appetite for risk,
and that there we are beginning to see signs of recovery, and the market is
beginning to anticipate that. We think as the year progresses, recovery will
indeed happen, that earnings will rise above very depressed levels of
expectations and create positive surprises as the months progress. We have
targets of 1650 on the S&P by year end, 4300 on the Nasdaq Composite, and
12,700 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.”