Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Greg Nie, Senior Vice President of
Technical Research, First Union Securities: “We are overdue for at least a
relief rally. We have a pretty deep oversold condition. The factors that have
been weighing on the market certainly aren’t going to completely disappear, and
so we may see some lingering selling pressure. some heavy mutual fund selling, I
have suspicions, is the culprit in here. If that indeed is accurate, it will
dispense with a Santa Claus rally. However, I do think we’re going to retrace a
significant portion of the immediate decline that’s occurred the last couple of
days. Then I think that when we do snap back, given the depth of the oversold
level, we can possibly snap back to about 2700 on the Comp.”
Harry Laubscher, Market Analyst, Tucker
Anthony: “Tech selling is certainly winding down, and the activities today
do look as if maybe the funds have started to do some window dressing and
realign their portfolios. So, if we can hold most of the strength today, I would
expect to see some further strength coming in between now and the end of the
year. The Nasdaq Composite Index is certainly not out of the woods, but as long
as it can hold above the 2200 level, then that would be a positive. We’re still
anticipating a good rally during the initial months of the first quarter.”
John Roque, Vice President, Arnhold and
S. Bleichroeder: “It seems like we’re close to the end of this epic given
that Nasdaq’s declining volume yesterday was 88% of total volume. A 90% number
often marks capitulation. Nasdaq’s total volume was the second highest ever at
2.77 billion, which was slightly less than the 2.83 billion on 4/4/00. In
addition, the Nasdaq’s new lows totaled 788. This beats 737 on November 30 and
is the highest since 1326 on Oct. 8, 1998.”