John Augustine Quotations | Page 2

Retailers came out with pretty good reports. One would think we'll see a pretty good retail sales number, and that would give support to the market, absent much higher core inflation numbers.

The stock market has an opportunity to break upwards if corporate CEOs and CFOs say some good things, or at least some neutral things, about the outlook,

The stock market certainly got what it wanted in a lower-than-expected jobs report. If the Fed moves to the sideline and energy prices stabilize, those will be two headwinds out of the way for the stock market in 2006.

We could be into mid-July until we see the Dow break that record. It may take another round of earnings to give it that push.

This may be one of those years in the stock market where you'll want to sell on Memorial Day and go away until Labor Day.

Just as the brokerages are often a harbinger for things to come in the financial sector, the exchanges will probably fit into that equation of forward- looking financial sector indicators, and they'll revolve around the volume trends.

Earnings are driving the testing of the top end for the S&P 500, but geopolitical issues are here to stay for some time. That will put downward pressure on the stock market.

It seems the storm is not going to be as strong as we feared and that was enough to take some of the selling pressure off stocks today. We are not likely to see real stock-buying this afternoon as most investors still want to see what happens with the storm during the weekend, but if damage is minimal, we might be bound for a rally on Monday.

Big institutions are holding back their own capital. They're looking for an upside catalyst for stock prices. Any activity on the mergers and acquisition, buy-back or dividend fronts, mixed with good news out of energy or the Fed, would be a catalyst to bring the big institutions back into stock market.

Many market observers are coming out with the belief that the market will break upward after the election. Such strong consensus views often don't turn out to be a reality.