Low-end consumers, the ones that spend every penny of their paycheck, are really hurting with these gasoline prices. |
Negative guidance from Intel kicked off a new selling wave in beleaguered technology, while the February job figures turned out to be strong enough to raise some doubts about aggressive Federal Reserve ease. |
Now, this day prior to the long weekend, I don't think we'll have the cavalry charge at the close today. But I think this has legs. I think it could drive forward to, say, Dow 8500, |
Now, this day prior to the long weekend, I don't think we'll have the cavalry charge at the close today. But I think this has legs. I think it could drive forward to, say, Dow 8500. |
Obviously, companies split when the stock price has gotten beyond the pocketbook of the average investor. |
On Friday, we had a ratio of 12 to 1 of losers to winners. That's the worst performance since 1997. We also had over 3,000 declining issues. This shows real weakness. |
Once we get to April and the first quarter earnings are reported -- and I think they're going to be pretty good -- (that) could be helpful. I doubt if you'll get anything out of the Fed meeting. |
People will move along at an unhurried pace. No one is rushing to get in, and yet there are bargains around, so we're in this range-bound atmosphere. |
Rising long rates threaten the bellwether housing industry as well as consumer spending. The higher [bond] returns begin to compete with stocks for institutional affection. |
Rising rates won't hurt the new techies, but they might impact the 'old economy' customers, |
Rising rates won't hurt the new techies, but they might impact the 'old economy' customers. |
Second quarter is going to be excellent. Remember when the first quarter was reported in April, we had a 1,000-point gain in the Dow, and that was only a 10-percent (earnings) gain. |
So far the earnings season is kind of a mixed bag. It's not the catalyst that everyone was expecting it to be. Nokia was disappointing, Apple was positive and Citigroup is in the middle. We're still waiting for IBM, |
So far the earnings season is kind of a mixed bag. It's not the catalyst that everyone was expecting it to be. Nokia was disappointing, Apple was positive and Citigroup is in the middle. We're still waiting for IBM. |
So there's nothing to offset the economic news and stocks are muddling along. Until we get some surety about the economy or corporate earnings, we'll continue to have this drifting, dismal kind of day. |