Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Richard McCabe, Chief Market Analyst,
Merrill Lynch: “The market has been in a consolidating phase for the last
few weeks, correcting or digesting the sharp rally it had in the early part of
June, and I think there might be a little more pullback in the next week or two.
I think there then will be another phase of rally, kind of a summer rally, as we
move further out into July and maybe even extending it to August. So I think
this pause of the last few weeks is not the end of the Spring-Summer rally
trend, but merely an interruption of it, and it will be followed by a second
wave or a second leg of the Spring-Summer rally as we move out into July.
Gregory Nie, Senior Vice President of
Technical Research, First Union Securities: “I think overall we are going
to see a see-saw session. We have end of the quarter considerations combined with
index rebalancing and the Russell reconstitution, which is what everybody is
calling it. So I think that’s going to give us two-sided, but rather contained
trade. Volume will probably in the end, because of the calendar, be a little
heavier than you would anticipate going into a long weekend. At the same time, I
wouldn’t anticipate any grand or significant technical sales coming out of
today’s trading.”
Eugene Peroni, Director of Equity
Research, Nuveen Investments: “I view the behavior that we are seeing today
as quite constructive. It’s still very much focused on New Economy. We’re
continuing to see the Old Economy areas of the market slump here, and that’s
certainly very well exhibited in the comparison of the formation in the Dow as
opposed to the Nasdaq Comp. So, I think this clearly is a market that is being
driven by the same leadership that was in place prior to the March 10
correction.
“We still see a great deal of focus in technology, in pharmaceuticals,
in biotechnology, in some commercial services, and to some degree in financial
services. We think that the Nasdaq has a very good opportunity to move into the
mid 4000s during a summer rally, and that the Nasdaq could make a new high by
the end of the year, while the Dow is likely to still struggle in a range
roughly between about 10,300 and 10,800 over the short run.”