Robert Philips Quotations

There are a lot of cross-currents going this week. Bond prices have been falling sharply, but it hasn't seemed to help stocks. Then you've got all the earnings pretty much coming in in-line but not providing many surprises.

My sense is that we're going to keep consolidating over the next few weeks after the kind of run we've had. Then you could see stocks start to move higher again.

On the day, you're just seeing traders take some profits in response to an overbought condition after the rally, but longer-term there is a real concern about the bond market being at a 45-year low and the risks of deflation.

From a technical standpoint the market is in a pretty good place. But I think it's a classic summer Friday, and people don't want to commit too much after the week we've seen and ahead of all the news next week.

We may see this push and pull for the next few weeks.

Greenspan had something for everybody, as he usually does. It depends on your frame of reference in terms of how you interpret it. I think his comments were pretty benign.

I think the Nasdaq probably bottomed Monday, and we're in the process overall of making a very meaningful bottom. The next couple of days will likely continue to be volatile, but I think we'll bounce off that bottom after that.

I think we're a bit overbought right now and we may need to consolidate. But maybe if the Fed statement implies a pause is coming soon, we could move up a bit.

I think it's unlikely that it's the retail investor causing this kind of action. You can pretty much bet it's program traders.

Long term, I think the markets are higher. ... I think on a very short basis, we're due for a pullback of sorts. The government is doing all it can to stimulate the economy, but pricing power is a concern longer term.

We've talked to him about opportunities within our cluster. It's really in Steve's court.

You have technology showing leadership again today, but I think you'll see a rotational shift by the end of the month, with investors pulling money out of sectors like tech and industrials and putting it into those that have performed less well, like pharmaceuticals.

We're not seeing much movement today (Wednesday) but I think we hit a bottom last week and we've set the stage to move higher in the short term.

The overriding issue is are we going to get one more rate hike or several.

To the extent that there remains pressure on stocks even when the company reports some good news means that on a broader level, people don't want to own anything right now.

The PPI today obviously affected the bond market. Stocks are more neutral right now in that you have oil stocks, materials and drug stocks doing well today, and that's countering the concerns about inflation.

The PPI today obviously affected the bond market, ... Stocks are more neutral right now in that you have oil stocks, materials and drug stocks doing well today, and that's countering the concerns about inflation.

We've had two days of pretty good rallies and now there's a bit of consolidation. We're not going to go anywhere meaningful until lots of these issues get resolved. When stocks get beaten down far enough, people get interested.

The stock market initially got pretty spooked by the strong March payrolls number. At that time, the futures market was signaling no rate hike until November. Now, it's signaling August.

Texas Instruments' conference call left people pretty cold. That broke the momentum of that group and has spilled over into other tech stocks.

Advertising dollars are more targeted to the 25-44 age group.

And there's a lack of clarity about the economic impact of Katrina.

This is a slight pullback from the rally we've been enjoying. But, we're very optimistic for the remainder of the year. We think it's up, up and away. Not to the heights of the 90s, but maybe a 10 percent rise from here.

It's been a difficult week or two for the stock market. It seems like as soon as we get past one thing, we have another. Overall, it seems the confluence of negative news is making people jittery.

It'll give some clarity about interest rates, whether the market can break out of this range, and will give us some indications about the presidential election. The better the jobs number, the better for Bush's re-election campaign, and for some on Wall Street, that's preferable, because they know what his policies are, and someone else coming in is more of an unknown.

I just think this is a brief hiatus in what will be a good finish to the month and the quarter.

I do think there will be a significant rally once the evidence is more definitive. A conclusive end to war will fix the problems we are having today. A positive end to war stimulates a stock market rally, which stimulates consumer and corporate spending. I think it's the stock market that comes first -- it's always been that way.

The underlying fundamentals remain decent, but the pessimism is getting higher. The biggest hindrance right now is oil prices, part and parcel with Iraq.

You've got the whole unsettled war threat hanging over us, a slew of corporate malfeasance, and worries that economic recovery won't be as good as expected in the second half of the year. But people are getting sick of this, which is the kind of reaction you have when a bottom is being set. So maybe that's one positive.

The market is technically oversold, so you could see a short-term bounce, but without a resolution to the Iraq question, you're not going to see anything substantial.

The market has been oversold with all the fear. So partly, you're seeing a response to that,