Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Michael Lyons, Senior Trader, Morgan
Stanley: “I think I have to be bullish the way the market has acted here
this morning with the economic news. They came out of the gate acting poorly,
and once they got the selling out of the way, I guess we figured it wasn’t all
that bad. You’re in an environment now where good news is good news, and bad
news is not so bad. It may not be good, but maybe it’s not so bad. We got
through earnings season pretty well with no major damage. Hopefully we’ve got
another half-point rate cut coming into play a couple weeks down the road, and I
think that seems more likely given today’s weak economic numbers.
“The market has taken on really positive tone in just the last couple of
hours. Semiconductors, financials, and drugs are acting good. It’s just done a
complete flip. The trend is up, and you don’t try to fight the trend. I think
the last eight or ten sessions have kind of confirmed that. The fact that it
keeps inching its way up is encouraging.”
Alan Ackerman, Market Strategist,
Fahnstock & Co.: “The market’s overall performance in April was a
sizzler. Clearly some stocks had mega-moves that appeared to resemble the mood
and money flow in the market during the early Internet-mania period. The
difference this time seems to be that many companies have moved up sharply,
whereby they are concentrating on cutting costs, improving revenues, and
attempting to increase shareholder value. The remarkable resilience of the
market today is another example of the fact that this may be occurring. In
addition, the Fed is likely to be accommodative as a result of the jobless
numbers published this morning.”