All those things together made the market weaker. |
Anything that makes investors feel comfortable with the inflation level and the way short-term interest rates are going is going to help the market. |
Certainly, part of the market's worries right now stem from oil. You still have instability in the Middle East, and there's a fear that prices will move dramatically higher. |
I think today's action is a little bit of profit taking. There's some consternation in the bond market. We think this market in equities is going higher later this year. |
I think we are set up and ready to go for a summer rally. |
I think we're seeing some profit taking. |
It doesn't look like inflation so far is accelerating. The market likes that because it worries less about the Fed raising rates too aggressively. |
It's not unusual to see a rotation back into some of these traditional stocks. |
Lower rates should stimulate other consumer areas. We think building materials, as a result of continuing housing demand going forward, should do well. We actually think we'll see more demand for autos. |
Perhaps we get a [0.25 percent hike] in August and one in September. |
The market is looking at that and worrying that inflation may be rekindling as the unemployment rate moves lower. |
There are a lot of features behind this market that are very favorable. Inflation news recently for August was very positive. Rates dropping have been a positive for this market and earnings still look good. |
We are maintaining our long-standing target for the Dow 10,000 area by late spring 1999. |
We think Gap is a strong growth company whose valuations have become attractive in the last, really the last three months or so. I think the surprise of the year right now is that the economy is not so strong, that inflation will heat up and that these growth stocks that have carried the market for the last three years are going to reassert themselves. |
We think right now we're looking at a range in the intermediate term between [the current] level to 8,000 and down into maybe the 7,300 area. At the same time, as you look at those levels to the 8,500 target we see for next year, there's still good opportunity for gains. |