Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Paul Desmond, President, Lowry’s Reports:
“The wild gyrations of the past week have produced a flurry of whipsaws
within the very sensitive stochastic indicators, and in our conventional
short-term signals. We noted last week that longer-term investors should view
any short-term rallies occurring during periods in which the primary trend of
the market is negative, as it is now, often prove to be better opportunities for
selling into strength than for new purchases.”
John Roque, Vice President, Arnhold and
S. Bleichroeder: “It’s interesting to note that 46% of NYSE stocks are
still above their 30-week moving averages. This figure is less than the 52.9%
average since 1967, but still way above the levels seen at seen at other
important bottoms. At the very least, we figure this indicator will have to work
below the 30% level for us to feel better about committing money on the long
side.”
Paul Rabbitt, President,
RabbittAnalytics.com: “Sentiment has been staying in pessimistic territory
for the past three weeks. As a contrarian, this is good. Still, fear is not as
high as in the spring of ’96, ’97 or October ’98. Three of four polls are
pessimistic, the public is 1.1x times more short than specialists, new issues
(in the past 12 months as a percentage of NYSE volume) are the lowest in a
decade, and money-market cash has risen substantially.”