Michael Sheldon Investors Quotations

We're seeing a continuation of the trends that were generally in place through much of the first quarter. We continue to see a number of uncertainties below the surface, but investors have mostly focused on the positives.

Looks like the stock market has gotten off on positive footing after yesterday's broad-based decline. We're seeing gains in eight of 10 S&P sectors. The data that came out so far was pretty much in line with expectations. Looking ahead, investors will be keeping an eye on auto sales.

The rally the past few days shows investors are willing to look past this period of uncertainty toward a pickup in growth in early 2006. It's a pretty optimistic viewpoint and that could change when the data comes in.

Looking ahead to next week, the more important question for investors will be: 'Will the market experience a holiday hangover as investors take profits?'.

Markets are in a trading range right now, consolidating gains after the last few months. A lot of investors were looking to this week's data as a way to break out of the range, but what we've seen has left enough doubt in the minds of the bulls that we aren't likely to break out of this range in the next few sessions.

When the central bank came out and said they're going to drain liquidity over a period of months, that was a catalyst for investors who have avoided the stock market to put some money back in.

With the Dow and Nasdaq having moved up the way they have, it's only normal to see a bit of a pullback from time to time. But you still have a lot of seasonal factors to come into play. November through January has historically been great for stocks, and I think it will be almost a self-fulfilling prophecy as investors start trickling back into the market.

When all was said and done, the market showed its resilience once again, ... The market performed well despite today's extremely weak consumer sentiment number. Investors seem to be looking over a softer economy for the next few months towards a stronger economy to start 2006.

February has historically been a lackluster month for the stock market. Despite many positive corporate earnings reports, investors should be prepared for some choppy or sideways trading over the near term.

Oil prices in the morning would've been the biggest story, but by the close the market's incredible resilience is what investors are left with, ... It's a contrast to how the markets ended yesterday. I think so far higher oil prices have not had a major impact. There are a lot of positives driving the consumer and the stock market.

Once bond yields started moving higher again, investors reflected on the interest rate environment and decided to take profits off the recent highs.

The fall has traditionally caused anxiety for investors and produced some big declines, particularly in late August and early September.

All in all, I think investors are trying to put on a positive face and push stocks higher into the year-end. I think the market is going to try to build on yesterday's modest gains.

The markets remain overbought at current levels and could see some profit taking at any time. However, market internals remain very positive, so investors are reluctant to sell much into that. Given this scenario, we are likely to see more gains through the rest of the year, and some consolidation in early 2005.