Michael Holland Quotations

When the market refused to acquiesce (to Cisco's news), that was uncharacteristically resilient of this market, ... People are now looking for reasons why the market isn't doing more.

IBM is benefiting from a growing tailwind. The confidence shown recently by companies in their IT plans augurs well.

I don't think we're in bad shape. I think we're in a recession. I think we're in very good shape to weather this recession and make it a short, shallow one.

He has been a financial institution. No one can replace him. He brought financial journalism to a new level with his trademarks of honesty, humor and fairness. He always looked at both sides of the issues. His only bias was toward optimism.

We loaned the money to the church, not to him.

He is the single most successful architect of a financial services colossus of our time.

I think the economy stinks and the numbers (corporate results) for the next couple of quarters are going to be lousy. You have exhausted sellers on the one hand and the crummy economy on the other, so you get a standoff,

I think what stocks are reflecting, especially with respect to the Nasdaq, is they've incorporated the worst news.

I think it's not a clear and present danger,

I think we are down to levels were people have said enough is enough.

I think that we had an incredible performance yesterday (Monday). I think today (Tuesday) is just giving up some of what we put together over the last two days.

I think there's a possibility that after Vice President Gore makes his comments, I would expect a little bit of a relief rally tomorrow.

People are saying at some point the recession will be over and earnings will come, and at some point you have to own stocks.

I think here for a while we will probably digest the recent gains,

Managements in the U.S. have led the way and now we see are starting to see it around the world, BP et al are starting to show that they understand the importance of getting leaner and stronger and better, ... And we continue to have greater and greater productivity.

Merrill Lynch could go down some more, but I like stocks like that. I like Merck, but they got pounded on Friday,

We have a global decrease in interest rates and a global decrease in inflation.

We're coming close to the end of earnings season. But the remaining earnings that are coming up will be important in terms of the reaction to them.

We have been and are probably in the midst of some sort of significant recession, ... The stock market predicted it ? it's already down. Since the market has already priced in the recession, we get these really strong reactions on the upside when there's a glimmer of anything positive.

When Mr. Fisher joined Eastman Kodak, I was a shareholder with great anticipation that he would take a technological problem and make it into a technological opportunity, ... Lou Gerstner did that at IBM. I thought there was a possibility, actually a probability, that we'd get that out of George Fisher. Unfortunately it hasn't happened yet.

We've come from 7,500 in October to 10,000 shortly thereafter, ... I think the next 2,000-point move is not back to 7,500 but up 2,000 points.

There are lots of nasty stories but despite that we've had a stealth bull market.

Both owning asset management and not owning asset management are reasonable positions to take.

The government numbers are often lagging indicators rather than coincident indicators. I think there will be confirmation that we have a somewhat weak period right now.

Every time in the last couple of weeks that this has looked closer to a resolution, the market has done better.

Each 1,000 point market becomes less important because the percentages get smaller and smaller, so they have become truly irrelevant in some measure, ... But (10,000) is extremely important because a lot of people who have had a little bit of shaken confidence over the last several years (are probably going to) come in here.

A number of people were looking for the good news that occurred, ... When the dust settles, people also say, history argues for the market going up. So people who may have been inclined to sell just don't.

Alan Greenspan's history is being a gradualist. Having done five quarter-point increases in less than a year, another quarter-point would fulfill one of his objectives of not unsettling the markets. That's why I believe there will be a quarter-point hike in May, possibly followed by another in June.

It's just continued disappointment in the Federal Reserve, ... We have a growing problem in the economy and with companies' profitability and the Federal Reserve is behind it (the curve).

It's the wild, wild West of the securities area, I wouldn't even call it an industry there.

The bad guys lost, the good guys won.

It was a precursor to a great earnings season. I think the next few weeks are going to be better than anyone expects.

It's very possible it will take a completely different course than any of us expected, ... The real story is where will this thing go sometime in the future, particularly as people continue to become more and more involved in telecommuting.

This is clearly a defensive, reactive move by Nasdaq, but a necessary one,

Anyone who has leaned against this bull market has paid a price. Charlie Clough is a very smart guy who was symbolic of a lot of smart people who have been fooled by the continuing strength of this bull market.

In companies like this, people are looking for change, ... The hedge funds come in and they're going to bet that this is something that will push the stock price up. And it's a decent bet. Icahn's name is important because of the history that he will get something done.

Investors continue to wait and see if there is anything that signals a bottom,

I think 50 basis points is built into the market price structure,

The economy and the profit cycle that is in a downturn will come to an end and when it does, people should continue to be invested. Take advantage of any weakness or retain positions ? overall, the market is down to levels where a portion of the risk has been taken out.

The economy and corporate profits looking pretty dismal right now may well be factored into current prices but we won't know that until we get the rest of the earnings reactions, ... The reactions will be key to how the market will look in the coming weeks.

The economy still remains bleak and is getting bleaker, ... The Federal Reserve remains behind the curve -- this will end, but not in the near future.

The earnings numbers continue to be really lousy, ... When you have this kind of carnage, fear replaces greed, but the good news is that this too shall pass.

The market is smelling a positive surprise that Congress is going to do something good for the economy, ... What we're looking at is a growing conviction that the worst is behind us.