Anthony Chan Sing Quotations

More rate cuts may not be forthcoming, but the Fed is also not likely to start raising rates as quickly as financial markets expect.

If housing is starting to weaken and manufacturing is not turning around, obviously it spells trouble for the economy.

Even though we are close to the peak and we are still going to see spurts in activity, we will eventually see the housing market slow.

Even though the headline number came in much stronger, it isn't the number investors are going to be focusing on.

The report illustrates the fact that housing is not defying gravity and is not likely to do so this year. We're going to see chipping away of housing.

Higher mortgage rates are having the expected impact on the housing market.

clear evidence that this sector will not continue rising forever.

Several times in the last year we've seen mortgage rates creeping up and housing hasn't responded. Now the Federal Reserve has put some credibility behind the increase in rates. I think it set a general tone for the housing market that it'll be a lot more muted.

There's no question these higher mortgage rates will take some of the shine off the resiliency in the housing market,

Investors have become completely convinced that we need to see the housing canary buckle under a little bit. If the housing market softens, then investors will view that as the canary in the cave that indicates that central bankers will not have to be as aggressive.

In view of the stimulus already out there, I think the Fed will finish out the year by raising rates until the end.

Since the beginning of this year, the economy has been recovering gradually....In that environment, a gradually rising stock market would be justified. Instead we got a sharp decline. Can we justify this rally? Absolutely....But we can't justify a thousand-point increase every week.

Reading through the housing tea leaves suggests that the housing boom is becoming a bit long in the tooth. And while this outcome does not necessarily signal a collapse in activity just around the corner, it does suggest that the housing sector's best days are probably behind us.

We will eventually see the negative impact of rising rates -- we can't dodge that bullet -- but doesn't usually happen at the beginning of the cycle. I'm not sure we will continue to see the market beating expectations by these margins, but I don't see the market collapsing in the next month or so.

The significant number of headwinds such as rising energy prices and the prospects of rising short-term rates are taking their toll on the economy,

For the equity market, this is somewhat good news because certainly (the report) is an important button for the Federal Reserve to see if its policies are working and that housing is slowing down, as it would be expected to do so, with all the hikes in short-term interest rates.

That report certainly reveals the recession is not over. The gains we had in September are not sustainable and illustrate why the central bank has to continue to lower rates. At this juncture, the easing of rates basically is serving as a consumer confidence booster.

The decline in hours means the economy will be limping along once again. Every tenth of an hour lost has the same economic impact as losing 200,000 jobs.

What investors should realize is that the hostesses have been recruited to start removing the punch bowls from all Fed reception rooms and will soon be out full in force and ready to continue raising short-term rates well into 2003.

Mortgage rates will put a little bit of a brake on housing activity, ... but it may come precisely as other sectors start to turn around.

The plunge in inventory accumulation does suggest that firms are not confident enough to add merchandise to their shelves. But they will not be able to do this indefinitely because everyone knows that sporting empty shelves in a rising growth environment is not prudent.

What it tells us is that we may see a bit of an easing off of economic growth or momentum. But even though the trajectory of growth may, in fact, ease a bit in 2006, I think the expansion remains intact.

You're seeing inventories creeping up and affordability pinching more and more, and you're seeing long-term rates creeping up. All that suggests a trimming of housing activity.

The housing market is resilient, still going strong, but it would be a mistake to ignore the weakness in existing sales and assume everything is copasetic.

The housing market doesn't surprise me; it's been rising all along and enabled the economy to experience only a mild recession.

This is a sign that the housing market is not exempt from the laws of gravity,

Betting against the U.S. consumer is always a losing bet.

It lets the Fed feel more comfortable of raising only at a measured, and not an accelerated, pace,

This is very good news. Workers may end up getting the purchasing power they've been lacking so far. While overall prices are still rising, we have good reason to believe energy prices will be going down.

One of the pillars of strength of the housing market is the fact of the tax-advantaged nature of the asset. To the extent that you chip away at that, you would see housing somewhat negatively impacted.

Recent speculation about the demise of the housing boom has been greatly exaggerated.

Real new home sale prices and existing-home sale prices have been rising very sharply. When that starts to give way and we don't have the equity market picking up where housing left off, that's another reason the economic expansion will be gradual.

Now companies are convinced that the expansion is getting stronger and is sustainable and they are increasing hiring to meet expected demand.

Oil prices have not been a positive for the equity market with the potential for rising inflation.

I would say that momentum (in the housing market) probably will not continue, since you don't see the same strength in permits that you do in construction,

We're basically missing 5.1 million jobs at this stage of the expansion. You could even call it the case of the missing jobs, ... different paradigm.

Although it's not particularly good news for the housing market, the fact that you're seeing weakness here shows that monetary policy is working and the (Fed) would not have to blunt the economy with more hikes than the market has been anticipating.

It appears as though the level of job security is rising and that's a very encouraging thing to consumers, ... Consumers are spending more on general merchandise as well as on eating out. People don't go out to restaurants a lot if they're not feeling good about their economic situation.

We may want to wait for another month or so to be sure that such gains were truly reflective of a upward trend and not just a possible distortion arising from the temporary 'hurricane-related' loss of many lower-paying service sector jobs,

What is giving us protection is all the global competition that we have. That is preventing companies from passing on most of the costs. Even though productivity has been slowing down, it's still fairly significant.

The outsized gain in housing starts was influenced by the same variable dominating most of the other headline stats like the retail sales and industrial production, namely weather. Everyone knows that housing starts is a volatile number that generally reports wide swings.