Increasingly, companies would pretty much write their own accounting rules when they put together their earnings releases. We said to ourselves, let's figure out how to do this the right way so the earnings number really tells us something about what's going on and the number is consistent from company to company. |
It's a sign that this is a company that represents the economy, represents the stock market and should be a member of the S&P 500. |
It's just a lack of consistency. Companies change the definition quarter to quarter, whichever looks best - that's not a reasonable way to do business. |
Large-cap managers have been chasing the performance of mid- and small-cap stocks, and investors may not be aware of this. |
Over long periods of time, stock markets generally go up. Japan was obviously an exception if you chose the wrong 12 years. |
People will stockpile food, home heating oil if they can buy it. |
The bet is that this will not be repeated next month. |
The economy right now is absolutely fantastic, but I think the Asian impact is still to come. The big hit is probably to come in late spring or early summer. |
The employment data showed a lot of weakness, |
The employment data showed a lot of weakness. Before that, I was on the fence about whether the Fed would cut 25 (basis) points or 50, but I got off in a hurry when I saw that. |
The equal-weighted index will give you more exposure to smaller stocks. If you believe that small caps outperform large caps, and most data suggests they do, then the equal-weight should give you a small edge over long periods. |
The general good feeling about the economy of the last few weeks is definitely still here. |
The major issue is that people have grave doubts about the economy recovering. There's no recession, [and] the economy will recover. Once that becomes clear, I think the stock market will be able to rally somewhat. Until then, we're in for a lot of bouncing around. |
The market seemed to think [the Fed's bias] was a note of panic, but I didn't see that at all, ... It's a note of caution. If the Fed saw a boom coming, it would shift to a neutral bias. I don't think it should scare [companies] completely, but I certainly wouldn't go spend like a drunken sailor. |
The market seemed to think [the Fed's bias] was a note of panic, but I didn't see that at all. It's a note of caution. If the Fed saw a boom coming, it would shift to a neutral bias. I don't think it should scare [companies] completely, but I certainly wouldn't go spend like a drunken sailor. |