If we see improvements in earnings outlooks, some kind of resolution in the Middle East, and improvements in consumer confidence we'd see a significant rally. But, I don't know when that's going to happen. |
In the spring, the worry was that the economy was slowing down. Now it's summer and we can see the economy is on track and earnings are looking good. |
In today's market, there's nothing definitive. It's mostly profit-taking. We've seen fireworks in the recent past and I think we'll trade sideways until [early December], when the fourth-quarter earnings pre-announcements come out. |
It didn't look like anything much was going to happen in the middle of the election rhetoric, but we ended up seeing a pretty good advance after all. |
It's going to be somewhat sideways trading in the market here for a while. |
It's like (Dickens') 'A Tale of Two Cities,' 'it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,' ... If you get away from the stock noise, the economy is recovering, manufacturing is picking up, you've got the services report this morning. But the market just wants to ignore this information. |
It's not the end of the run. The market needs a breather, and that's what the selling is about. |
Most of my clients are conservative investors who are looking for low volatility and tax-advantaged investing. |
Most of the bad news and pre-announcements are out of the way. What we really need now is guidance that says [revenue] growth is on the way. Corporations have done everything they can to cut costs, now we need to see that growth. |
No one wants to stick their neck out. There's nervousness about Iraq, oil prices are up and the dollar isn't, and the earnings season is mostly over with and it was just mixed. |
Oil prices and interest rates are the twin problems right now, ... People are looking at these prices and saying 'how is this going to trickle down through the economy?' |
Oil prices are one foot forward, one foot back. We are dancing around $40 a barrel. At the moment the oil prices are forming an equilibrium around $40 a barrel. |
On one hand, there's a hopeful feeling that the hurricane will only have a temporary impact, but on the other hand there's worry that it could be worse than we are anticipating. |
Really, in the market today, the most significant mover is the earnings. If earnings do well, the market will do well, if not, then the market won't. |
Recent statistics have introduced an element of uncertainty into the economic recovery, ... We don't know if this is a cyclical, temporary slowdown or something more, and we're probably not going to have clarity on that until the fall. |