Basically, if any of the economic numbers are too far off of expectations -- especially after Greenspan's comments -- that's going to make investors nervous. |
Even though the regular rate was slightly higher than expectations, right now the market is willing to discount the fact that energy prices are an important component. The reality is, it's an important sign and inflation is picking up. The fact is, people have to start taking a look at energy prices as a concern. |
He needs to instill some confidence in the marketplace. |
I don't think this is the beginning of a significant correction in the stock market. I believe the market is overdue to have a correction of 5 to 7 percent, but not a bear market. |
I think they're probably somewhat disappointed. They probably looked at their portfolio and said, I didn't do as well as the Dow. I made money, but I'm kind of disappointed. |
Investors have to be patient. You still have to ride the winners at this point, which are usually found in technology. I think you need to be a little bit more defensive in where you are in tech and biotech. But you have to wait until you get that correction and prices stay down. Until then, the money is hot right now and the hot money is going back to many of the same names. |
Oracle is putting pressure on the technology stocks, but the Dow was up for seven days in a row before yesterday. The market was more than due for some kind of a sell-off. |
Take away the Cisco article and you would have had a much better trading day. |
Technology is really driving the market but we are starting to see a focus on energy. I like these stocks and it looks like they will continue to perform well. I think that group has made its bottom and it's going to start to slowly work higher. |
Technology stocks weren't able to hold their gains and the market pulled back. |
The market is up so much that it's got to become a little bit more difficult to make progress. I don't think it's necessarily a sign of anything big I'm bullish, but not enthusiastically, jumping up-and-down bullish. |
The Nasdaq advance/decline line actually ended the year lower than where it started, and that says that the soldiers weren't really participating, that it was a limited number of stocks driving the average up. |
The next potential market-moving event is the PPI. Every time there is a number that suggests the economy is too strong, bonds come under pressure, which means large caps come under pressure. |
The strong employment numbers say there's still power out there in the economy and therefore the earnings picture will continue to be good. Meanwhile the hourly wage number was not that strong so it doesn't suggest any pickup in inflation. So it's a good number for Wall Street. |
There is good reason for concern because a good piece of the old economy is not doing so well in this environment. But it is going to take a lot from the Fed to slow the tech rally. |