Douglas Altabef Quotations

The potential is that there could have been a surprise that could have influenced the Fed next Tuesday, and clearly that hasn't happened. But employment is a lagging indicator. So the report is not a reflection of where the economy is going, but where it's been.

Three years ago people actually thought that the Dow could go to 36,000 and it did the opposite. It's when people have really given up on the prospect of a real rally that you see a real rally, but try telling that to most investors now. Three years ago there was no reality dose, today there's no perspective.

The real issue is that energy prices keep rising -- it's like an invisible tax on the market and the consumer.

We're seeing the reality of a market that does not have any great conviction. Anyone who expected a linear, 'We're off to the races' kind of tone after last week was mistaken.

We're looking at the first day of the rest of the year and it's looking like more of the same. On an up note, there is more discussion that maybe we have worked through some of the intense negativity of late and that the disconnect between the economic data and market action may end soon.

On any given day, the market is taking its cue from forecasts and results. Juniper was negative, so that's spilling through the Nasdaq. I think, overall, though, the trend through the rest of the year and into early next year will be more positive.

On a macro level, we are at the beginnings of an economic recovery, not as fast as some people want, and we may have some altercation with Iraq in the next six months. That uncertainty is putting the foot on the accelerator and pulling it off the accelerator at the same time.

My sense is that you'll see a few more days of gains as a lot of money managers want to be long the market through the quarter end.

I expect we will be seeing those kind of normative gains next year.

It actually isn't a bad day -- it's a good day for techs. I think the most important thing is that earnings season is going pretty well. A lot of this is perception, and the economy may not be robust, but it's not sick. There's certainly a lot of anxiety out there among individual investors.

I think the market is beset with tenacious negativity. It's a 'glass is half empty' attitude in the market, where bad news is interpreted as bad news and any good news is just OK.

I think that there is an upward bias. The market for the first time in a long while is wanting to go up.

I think as the year goes on there is going to be more conviction about an economic recovery. I think the market's sort of sideways with an upside bias at least for the next couple of months. I think we'll have a nice fourth quarter.

I think there is a lot of nervousness that we'll have a repeat of last time. No one wants to see this drag on like it did in 2000.

I think there are a couple trends worth paying attention to. Number one is the re-emergence of financials. We've seen that already over the last few months. They've had a tremendous run but they're coming off such a lousy last year-and-a-half that I think it's fair to say that it hasn't really left the station. But there's a lot of whistle blowing going on. The other one is that investors are very nervous about any kind of whiff of disappointment of not meeting expectations, so there is tremendous short-term volatility going on, and that's a buying opportunity.

I think if you look at volume it would seem to indicate there very likely may be a return of investors. People who are more opportunistic have seen the signs. But a lot of people are waiting for clarity.

Merrill may be more of a tortoise, but they'll start to catch up.

You'll see markets continue to do the Cha-Cha, moving higher, but paced by brief retrenchments. It's not going to be as good as last year, but I think 2004 will still be a good year for the stock markets.

We were going to have a knee-jerk negative reaction to the Fed's decision no matter what, with so many different opinions on what should be done, but I think today, it may be that people are looking more closely at the statement and see it as the Fed saying things are slowly going in the right direction.

Today, there isn't any economic news, and the earnings news is having an impact on those stocks but not the broader market.

Wal-Mart is ? I would argue is a fairly recession-resistant retail.

With Iraq off center stage, there is more good to focus on than not. The prospect of a double-dip recession will fade, I think.

You had a terrible day Friday with the market pricing in the reality of these events and you have a continuation of that reaction now. There are no surprises. It's pretty much across-the-board negativity.

What companies report now is less influential than what they say about future quarters.

We expect the year to end 2 to 3 percent higher or lower than where it is now. The case for it going down is a massive run of profit taking. The case for it going up is people wanting to get a jump on the January rally.

We think one of the more exciting opportunities this year in the market are in the tech sector.

Earnings have been good, but what you're starting to see is a return to the attitude about earnings that we saw in the late 1990's, where you're seeing more talk about whisper numbers, higher expectations, and a more punitive reaction to numbers that disappoint.

There's no real compelling reason for stocks to be up. But you've got little new news and there's an upward bias, so we're up today after a few days of selling.

These accounting worries go right to the underpinnings of trust and confidence. If trust isn't there, you're tugging at the loose thread of a cheap polyester suit. People are worried about what other shoes are getting ready to drop.

Profit news continues to be good, and we are seeing some relief from the profit taking of the last few weeks. But there is an ongoing tug-of-war between 'we've come too far too fast,' and 'the economic recovery is strong' and you're seeing that played out on a day-to-day basis.

Ostensibly, the advance was caused by oil coming down and some of the comments with the beige book.

People are trying to figure out what the real-world implications of AOL's announcement are.

O'Neal has a good sense of where the business focus should be. He's been able to take advantage of a good business environment.

The CA investigation is an ongoing thing. They've had problems long before accounting scrutiny was fashionable, so the impact of that is muted. There is the sense that the market wants to shrug off the bad news.

You're really going to need to see some bellwether companies saying the quality of earnings is improving and that it's due to growth, not cost-cutting, before investors are going to be willing to set aside the skepticism.

This is not an expensive stock. We think Merrill certainly has a significant amount of upward opportunity.

The U.N. says go slow, the U.S. says the fact that Blix can't find anything is more of a comment on Blix than anything else. The point is, Bush is not going to be deterred by these findings.

It's always been a high-multiple stock among the retailers based on the reality of terrific business performance. Wal-Mart has many times in the last 15 years been a lousy investment possibility because it's priced so high. Our thinking is they've got to always be right.

It's a mixed picture. There's no question that the news is a lot better, but it may be priced into the market.

It was great that we had three or four days of a healthy bounce. But our take is that the market is being unduly punitive right now.

I'm just amazed the market has been as strong as it has in the past few days.

Clearly you're seeing conflicting signs about the economy and the market reacting to that.

But I think the way the market is acting is actually healthy. You're seeing a real resilience on the part of the market. You're seeing a willingness to shrug off or contextualize not great news, which is a big improvement over June and July, when if the market was open, it was down.

However, the rising of interest rates from the current abysmal levels wouldn't be a bad thing, as it would be happening because of positive reasons, because the economy is strengthening.

The market continues to attempt to find a footing. Essentially, we are still somewhat on hold as a result of events unfolding between the United States, Iraq and the United Nations. There just doesn't seem to be a meaningful signal that Iraq has decided to disarm.

The forecasts for the second-half of the year for the most part seem to support a recovery, but to some extent, that's already priced into the market, so you're not seeing that much stock reaction. There's not a lot of conviction and some people will take profits. But I think there will continue to be a moderately upwards bias for the remainder of the year.

The market is in a wait-and-see mode. It's waiting for confirmation of an economic recovery, some kind of resolution on Iraq and on what the Federal Reserve is going to do in its meeting this month.

The market is clearly in a cha-cha mode. There's very little conviction and that's why we're seeing this kind of volatility.