Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Phil Roth, Chief Technical Market
Analyst, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter: “I think the market made a weak bottom
in late May, and we’re struggling to make progress out of that bottom. There was
a very oversold condition in glamour stocks like technology, and they rallied
sharply very briefly and then stalled. There doesn’t seem to be much else to
pick up the slack, so the market suffers from a lack of leadership. The only
sustainable buying I see here is in some defensive areas like healthcare.
There’s some waiting for the Fed dominating some thinking, but everyone knows
what’s going to happen, which is nothing.
“The thought that our problems will be solved as soon as the Fed meeting
is over is unlikely. I think investors are befuddled because the economy has
started to slow, but at this point it’s not clear how much or how rapid it’s
going to slow and whether or not that’s going to have bearish implications for
earnings. At the same time we’ve had soaring natural gas and crude prices which
is potentially inflationary. In this confusion about the economic environment, I
think we will make some progress into July and then come down again. I think the
odds favor a better low in the Fall than we had in the Spring.”
Buzzy Geduld, President, Herzog Heine
Geduld: “It’s really quiet this morning. Everybody’s waiting for the Fed. I
think it will be pretty quiet until then, and it might even be quiet after the
Fed. It’s been very quiet for weeks now. As for when this will pick up,
hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.”
Bernard Madoff, Chairman, Madoff
Securities: “Basically, there’s not much going on. The volume has been
relatively light. The market has been trading in a very narrow range, and my
guess would be you would see this kind of activity continue through the rest of
the week. You have a lot of news coming out, and nobody really wants to make
much of a capital commitment in this kind of environment. I think it will be
relatively quiet for the rest of the week.”
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