Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Tim Heekin, Director of Trading, Thomas
Weisel Partners: “When the market hit its low in the first half-hour of
trading we did see a number of large institutions come in and bottom fish in
some of the technology and some of the telecom names that have really gotten hit
hard. In particular, we saw some people coming into PMCS, Vitesse, Broadcom. We
also saw some bottom fishing coming in for Glassworks and JDS Uniphase, but for
the most part, there’s been a lack of buying and moderate selling pressure and
that’s why you’ve got the market where it is.
“Honestly, I don’t see anything fundamentally wrong with the market.
Technically we haven’t really violated any substantial support levels, so what’s
driving this is the election, and the psychology of the market is just basically
the fear of the unknown and not having a resolution to the Presidency of the
United States has just caused some concern. As soon as the election is resolved,
I think you’ll get a bounce. You’ll get a bigger bounce if it’s a Republican,
and if it’s a Democrat, you’ll likely get a little hiccup to the downside which
would be followed by a nice bounce to the upside.”
Brian Belski, Fundamental Market
Strategist, U.S. Bancorp/Piper Jaffray: “We still anticipate a stronger
move to the upside for the four to six weeks that will follow the election
decision. Why? Because it is our contention that most of the heavy tax-loss
selling actually occurred between September 15 and October 15, 2000, and many of
those same positions will likely become alternatives again over the next few
weeks as their 30-day wash cycles unwind. In addition, the highly anticipated
decision from the Fed not to raise interest rates next week should lend buying
support for stocks.”
John Roque, Vice President, Arnhold and
S. Bleichroeder: “We don’t think we’ve seen a bottom yet because there’s
been no capitulation because investors are still too complacent. Maybe the
capitulation will come when the Nasdaq breaks under 3000, when Oracle gets to 15
or Sun Microsystems retests its May low near 70, when volume soars, or when some
major technophile investor/strategist breaks rank and changes from a tech bull
to a tech bear.”