Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Alan Ackerman, Market Strategist,
Fahnestock & Co. "The slowing jobs data continues to impress Wall
Street investors who believe that this may help the Fed in not raising interest
rates any further than they are now. Conversely, the market is trying to gauge
what a slowing economy may do to corporate profits. So we seem to be in a phase
in the market where we’ll be trading sideways until analysts have a better
chance to look at the actual stream of corporate earnings.
"We continue to be in a market of stocks. It’s important to be stock
selective. Disappointing earnings are likely to be devastating to individual
issues. Conversely, most warnings are out of the way, and we may start to see a
bit more optimism in the market as these earnings reports surface."
John Roque, Vice
President, Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, Inc. "Check this out. The Value
Line Index is at an all-time high. Little, old, democratic (meaning equally
weighted), frumpy, unexciting, stodgy, staid, boring, humdrum, drab, lackluster,
somber, wan, and dull Value Line is at a new all-time high. The Value Line Index
is an equally weighted index of 1650 stocks, which means that no one stock can
dominate. This is another reason to consider non-tech and non-telecom shares
because while they were rockin’ in 1999, the Value Line Index wasn’t. It was
only up 10.6% in 1999.
"Also interesting is the fact that cumulative
breadth for NYSE stocks is bottoming. For the first time since 1994, cumulative
breadth is bottoming and is now at its highest level in more than four months,
or since February 22, 2000. This leaves us quite sure that a bottom in
cumulative breadth says portfolios without representation in formerly forgotten
sectors will likely underperform."
Paul Rabbitt,
President, RabbittAnalytics.com: "The DJII is compressing into a narrow
range, which it may escape shortly with some volatility, probably to the upside.
Its current range is 11,340 – 10,250. Looking ahead, we expect stocks to trade
sideways through the August Fed meeting. This week we will be watching for
Friday reports on June PPI, retail sales, and industrial production. As for
interest rates, at its August meeting, we expect the Fed will leave rates
unchanged."