Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Sam Stovall, Senior Investment
Strategist, Standard & Poors: "The Nasdaq collapse really is more a
reflection of the disappointment that investors have in the Fed because they did
not cut interest rates. I’m actually surprised that they are disappointed
because we did not expect the Fed to cut interest rates. We figured that they
probably would embrace a neutral or an easing bias but would likely not be
cutting rates until their January 30-31st meeting. So, in some ways investors
are getting a little bit ahead of themselves in terms of what the Fed is going
to be doing, and as a result they’re getting disappointed."
Eugene Peroni Jr., Director of Equity
Research, Nuveen Investments: "With the breakdown in the Nasdaq and
certainly with no monetary stimulus here, I think that the market’s path of
least resistance is still going to be lower. For the Nasdaq that could mean a
drop to about the 2200 area now. The Dow will probably hold support between
10,200 and 10,400. I just don’t see much going on here until after Christmas,
and there I think we could get some semblance of a rally between Christmas and
New Years."
Andy Madoff, Director of Nasdaq Trading,
Madoff Securities: "We’re seeing very broad weakness, and even those stocks
which I would have considered the most oversold are down sharply. The percentage
declines these things are showing against their peaks are very surprising. I
would have said we reached a selling climax at a point last week, but obviously
we haven’t. It just doesn’t look pretty."