Stuart Freeman Quotations

We are maintaining our long-standing target for the Dow 10,000 area by late spring 1999.

We're in a funny space. Too much good news is not good news because the market worries about the Fed.

There are a lot of features behind this market that are very favorable. Inflation news recently for August was very positive. Rates dropping have been a positive for this market and earnings still look good.

Lower rates should stimulate other consumer areas. We think building materials, as a result of continuing housing demand going forward, should do well. We actually think we'll see more demand for autos.

Certainly, part of the market's worries right now stem from oil. You still have instability in the Middle East, and there's a fear that prices will move dramatically higher.

We've been thinking that the Nasdaq, as an index, would likely outperform a lot of the other indexes this year. It's a lot about secular growth. We're seeing growth in technology. And for the most part, it's been a tech year.

We think Gap is a strong growth company whose valuations have become attractive in the last, really the last three months or so. I think the surprise of the year right now is that the economy is not so strong, that inflation will heat up and that these growth stocks that have carried the market for the last three years are going to reassert themselves.

I think we are set up and ready to go for a summer rally.

I think today's action is a little bit of profit taking. There's some consternation in the bond market. We think this market in equities is going higher later this year.

It doesn't look like inflation so far is accelerating. The market likes that because it worries less about the Fed raising rates too aggressively.

We're always going to have some companies in the morass of reporting companies that aren't up to speed. Generally, the earnings for the quarter are good.

We think some of these stocks have had 15, 20 percent pullbacks here and they've become attractive.

Anything that makes investors feel comfortable with the inflation level and the way short-term interest rates are going is going to help the market.

It's not unusual to see a rotation back into some of these traditional stocks.

You've got interest rates on your side, inflation on your side. Earnings look good in the second quarter and we think they will be good for the balance of the year. We don't see the indicators to suggest we've got problems at this point.

You've got good home sales figures showing some decent economic growth, and you've got crude oil prices up. You put those together, and that creates worries that the Fed is going to keep going on rates.

All those things together made the market weaker.

The market is looking at that and worrying that inflation may be rekindling as the unemployment rate moves lower.