The fourth quarter is when we'll see the impact of rising interest rates, higher energy prices, ... I would say eBay is the biggest piece of the problem this morning. It's a household name and it's adding to the sentiment we're not going to have the best of fourth quarters. |
The global reaction to this is more of a psychological response than a rational one. People wake up and read whatever wire service they're going to read and realize that one of the major Asian markets was down by up to 6 percent overnight, and there are a number of tech earnings disappointments and it tends to cascade. Eventually you get a more rational response after people have time to come to terms with what is really happening. |
The headwinds facing the market are plentiful, |
The headwinds facing the market are plentiful. |
The increase in wages was the piece that really speaks to the inflationary pressure. The fear is that the Fed doesn't stop in March, that it continues through May. If corporate America's borrowing costs go up, that makes stocks less attractive. |
The industrial production and capacity utilization figures will be particularly interesting, in that they speak to the pace of the economy, |
The Iraqi elections is all anyone is talking about, certainly all eyes are on that, ... I think if we get past that with a minimum of violence and there is a clear winner, that could help the market on Monday. |
The larger trend remains to the upside, but its hard to say whether we'll see gains in the short-term, |
The last few weeks of December tend to be more defensive. |
The market [had] a lot of bad news to tap dance around today, ... We had bad corporate news for some of the Dow stocks ... an FBI warning and geopolitical concerns with Iraq. |
The market got whacked for no good reason on Friday. |
The market has been able to stomach a lot of bad news -- we've seen disasters every day and the market has trended higher, ... This is day four, so it's only natural to want to take profits. |
The market is flourishing today, |
The market is going to shrug that off. We spent so much time pricing in so much bad news, we can actually move on now. |
The market is keeping in lockstep with energy prices, ... As we get a better handle on the short-term and long-term impact of high energy prices, the market is able to rationalize a bit better. |