MarketWatch Morning Stock Talk

Todd Leone isn't buying what the other analysts are selling

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:20:24 EST

"The jobs number is going to be bad all year long. People are expecting bad job numbers. It's only going to get worse." Todd Leone, managing director at Cowen & Company, tells Andrew O'Day the slew of tough news on jobs is not a surprise and cannot be the sole source of blame for today's pullback. "What's going on is partly that the market had a 20 percent move up since the middle of November. It's coming off a little bit. It's healthy to come off a little bit."

Bittles: Path of least resistance is up

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:06:44 EST

This week might be choppy this week, between last week's big gains and grim economic news, says Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at R.W. Baird & Co. "But we do feel that the path of least resistance is to the upside now," he says. "The first half of the year offers the stock market its best opportunity to show a great deal of improvement over last year." Bittles thinks the S&P could top 1100 by summer.

Boockvar: Bad news is no news, which is good news

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:51:53 EST

"The market knows the economy is in very difficult condition right now." Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, tells Andrew O'Day "whether it's vehicle sales or payrolls last month, it's become expected to see negative news." Boockvar says today's losses are not related to economic news. "The market up more than 6 percent in 3 trading days was enough to give the market a reason to take a breather here."

Pavlik predicts 20% gains in 2009

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:40:16 EST

Hang on to your helmets and padding. Robert Pavlik of Oaktree Asset Management expects the first half of '09 to be rough on stocks. But he says investors who hang in there will be rewarded. "Right now we're projecting at least a 20% increase in the S&P 500," Pavlik says. "On a relative term, it's still not a tremendous amount, but anything is going to be better than this year."

Pado: Hopes for a spring thaw

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:06:00 EST

After a punishing 2008, Marc Pado of Cantor Fitzgerald thinks Wall Street will spend the first three months of 2009, stuck in place. "And that's not a bad thing. We sometimes lose sight of the fact that what we need to do after trending down for over a year is to stabilize the markets, and once we stabilize the markets, then they can do better." Pado thinks plans for economic stimulus will then give the market the push it needs to turn higher.

Mendelsohn: Don't "diss" the lump of coal

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:22:16 EST

"Oil, natural gas, gold -- anything you drop on your foot and it hurts -- I think there is a lot of potential in that area." Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Wyndham Financial Services, tells Andrew O'Day commodities are the way to play the soon-coming return of inflation. "As everybody is buying treasury bills with zero percent yield, their money is safe. But are they going to get back their dollars at the same value they put that money into treasuries?" Mendelsohn says clearly, no. As for today, indexes are adrift because potentially market-moving news is a wash of good and bad.

Nolte: Wall Street open only for appearances

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:18:41 EST

"Monday and Tuesday will probably be the big two trading days of next week, and then they'll pretty well shut it down for the rest of the year." Paul Nolte, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates, tells Andrew O'Day today's economic news "has been O.K. to slightly worse than expected, and you would expect the market to trade higher on that news." Nolte adds "we're just trying to close out 2008 and be happy to see it go."

Cardillo: Forget the rally. Santa drove away in a Chevy

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:19:51 EST

"The end-of-year rally, Santa Claus rally -- or whatever you want to label it as -- was cut short last week," says Market Economist Peter Cardillo at Avalon Partners. "A lot of that had to with the fact we're still seeing turmoil in the auto sector." Cardillo tells Andrew O'Day that despite the slew of ugly economic reports today, "there are several seeds that have been planted" for economic improvement next year.

Rappaport: If Toyota is losing, everybody is losing

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:05:05 EST

"If Toyota is going to keep having trouble, and they're talking about laying off workers and cutting back sales, how are the domestic automakers going to stay afloat?" Wealth Manager Craig Rappaport with Janney Montgomery Scott says that question is a big part of what's throwing Wall Street into reverse today. Rappaport also tells Andrew O'Day that a week with little economic and earnings news causes the market to follow the path of least resistance, which for many months now has been down.

Farr: Keep your seatbelt fastened. There's still more turbulence ahead

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:01:28 EST

"The economic backdrop isn't any better," says Michael Farr, president of Farr Miller & Washington, "and we're probably going to be in this sort of difficult market into the springtime." Farr describes the administration's auto industry rescue as a punt, and as for the downgrade of eleven financial firms by Standard & Poors today, Farr says "Thanks for nothing Standard & Poors! Where were you a couple of years ago?" Farr speaks with Andrew O'Day.