Tom Schrader Morning Quotations

I think the rally got started by news of the super-secret meeting with the Iraqi military this morning and just kept going from there. Everybody loves equities and the dollar today and everything else is down.

We had such big gains yesterday that it is not unusual for us to consolidate a little bit. Then, oil's down but gasoline is up and that is counterbalancing each other. The economic news we had this morning was less than inspiring.

It seems to be some natural selling, an extension of last week ... Terrorist activity over the weekend in Turkey led to selling in Japan and selling here; the earnings this morning were mixed, and you have no staggering economic news until Thursday, so people are taking some money off the table right now.

Economic numbers this morning were very story and could give the Fed more ammo to possibly continue their rate hikes past May. Most of the numbers we've seen over the past few weeks have been stronger than expected.

They like the CPI news this morning and the action in oil markets, with oil down 2 percent. Investors are less worried about inflation, and with energy prices coming in a little bit, that will give more money for the consumer to spend.

The confidence number this morning was abysmal, and that's what shocked the market. The higher oil prices are definitely starting to have an impact on consumer spending.

The consumer confidence (index) this morning was better than expected, and the lack of negative pre-announcements has given people the impression that first-quarter earnings are going to be good.

All the numbers we saw this morning were good for the market's purposes. GDP growth was certainly positive. Maybe there was a little disappointment that jobless claims didn't drop more, which doesn't bode well for next week's monthly unemployment number.

All the numbers we saw this morning were good for the market's purposes, ... GDP growth was certainly positive. Maybe there was a little disappointment that jobless claims didn't drop more, which doesn't bode well for next week's monthly unemployment number.