Douglas Altabef Market Quotations

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.