Anthony Chan Quotes (235 Quotes)

I remain more confident that the consumer will take great comfort in knowing that our government is truly taking care of business.

The pace of average hourly earnings continues to rise at just a tepid pace leading me to believe that this overall report is a very monetary policy-friendly report.

The much weaker-than-expected rise in payrolls truly confirms the cautious demeanor expressed by various Federal Reserve policy officials.

The significant number of headwinds such as rising energy prices and the prospects of rising short-term rates are taking their toll on the economy,

It's probably going to subtract 0.8 percent from gross domestic product growth this year.

The hope is that as the war issue is resolved over the next couple of days rather than weeks, we may see another bounce back in consumer activity.

With all that as a backdrop, there are some real positive forces to stimulate growth.

I haven't seen increases in the workweek strong enough to augur that all of a sudden employment is going to surge, ... If I had seen that in the past couple of months, I would be more optimistic.

The CPI report was very tame. It sort of reflects the comments by Alan Greenspan that even though monetary policy is way too expansive right now, inflation is sufficiently a non-event, a non-problem, so the Fed obviously can wait at this point,

It's a little disappointing to see core up that much. I was hoping for surprise on the downside for core as we got in the PPI (Producer Price Index) yesterday.

Oil prices have not been a positive for the equity market with the potential for rising inflation.

They (Fed policy makers) know at any point of the time they may need to administer CPR to this economy.

Yes, the published consensus estimate was higher, but that survey was compiled before the Chicago PM was released. After that number was released, many Wall Street investors feared that we could see a 47 or 48 reading for ISM.

When the economy is booming and you want to hire new workers, you have to attract them with money. Today, all you have to offer is a job.

I don't think that anyone will argue with you that it the labor market is not improving. It just isn't moving as fast as people would like it to.

This gives the Fed license to continue executing monetary policy. If they see any signs of slow growth in employment, industrial production, or retail sales, they certainly have the green light to make another cut. They have total flexibility to do whatever it takes to prevent a recession.

This report is good news because it says the labor market is turning the corner, but it's still not strong enough to declare victory.

I think the core rate will be slower now than six to nine months ago. Business is not passing along all its additional costs.

Although the BLS failed to provide an estimate of what the hurricane did to this report, my research does show that in nine out of the last 10 largest hurricanes, payrolls softened by an average of 120,000,

One thing to keep in mind is that Challenger's numbers are not seasonally adjusted. Therefore, when you make comparisons, you really have to make them on a year-to-year basis,

The number tells me a recession is coming, but it will be relatively mild in the wake of all the stimulus coming. But I would caution investors not to be so complacent as to think this could be bottom. It's going to be a lot uglier in the fourth quarter.

The two months of favorable data allow us to start connecting the dots. It gives us a picture of a rapidly improving labor market. I think we can categorically say we have seen a sea change in labor market environment at this time.

What this does is basically vindicate Greenspan's policy. In 2000, we're going to see more of a gradualist policy.

Even though the headline number came in much stronger, it isn't the number investors are going to be focusing on.

I have to come away with the view that the drop in crude prices offered the opportunity for a relief rally, although it didn't offer that much relief.

Additionally, it was encouraging to see a small increase in the length of the work week, which usually serves as a leading indicator of future employment growth.

The outsized gain in housing starts was influenced by the same variable dominating most of the other headline stats like the retail sales and industrial production, namely weather. Everyone knows that housing starts is a volatile number that generally reports wide swings.

The CPI report continues to be encouraging, ... These numbers are stimulating consumer spending by giving consumers more spending power. At the same time, lower inflation will also encourage the central bank to do whatever they need to do.

Given our forecast, we do not expect that this statistical release will have much impact on the policy debate when the Fed meets,

There's a huge hurricane hangover. I think the government will have to trip over itself to decide whether to have a huge downward revision to last month or whether the job losses will take a bigger hit this month.

There's no question that what's happening in the stock market is going to hurt consumer spending. The only thing helping us is the performance of housing.

Greenspan's testimony is good for the bond market ... because they realize the recovery is going to be gradual in nature, ... It's good for the equity market because the Fed won't stand in the way of recovery.

Consumers at this juncture are fighting the forces of economic slowdown with patriotism, ... As economic conditions continue to deteriorate, this challenge will become greater.

The prospects of 4 percent real GDP growth (or possibly more after future data revisions) during the third quarter are back on the table.

This is an exciting number, but it was warmer in November than usual. The warm weather is the equivalent of zero-percent financing on automobile sales. You're going to see this work itself off in months to come.

It reflects some loss of momentum from January. Activity in January was a bit too euphoric given the underlying economic fundamentals. This month is more realistic.

This is a report that represents judgment day for the Federal Reserve,

These jobless numbers confirm everything that came out in the Fed statement. Things are going to get worse before they get better on the unemployment rate front.

Greenspan's testimony certainly raises the probability that the structure of any eventual stimulus plan passed by Congress will move closer to that favored by Democrats, a plan that has clearly been associated with lower revenue losses,

The report is certainly encouraging. It says there's no urgency to panic about inflation. But that's not the same as saying there's justification for a pause. This is all pre-Katrina. There's enough pipeline pressures out there to say that a pause is not a slam dunk.

The trade deficit coming in a bit wider suggests growth is going to be a lot slower. It throws more support on the notion that there is more uncertainty in the short run. But that's premature speculation.

More and more firms are sticking their toes in the water. The recovery's begun, but it will be fragile.

There's a danger in being too positive, of there being a huge disconnect between how positive a policy-maker sounds and what the economy is doing, ... That was probably one of O'Neill's greatest shortfalls -- the dichotomy became too wide.

I think the big jump in Japan gives a nice tail wind to the equity markets this morning.

Based on these trends, it is not too difficult to conclude that the average consumer is probably a bit overextended from a credit standpoint,

We are not likely to see faster employment growth until the current growth trend in productivity slows significantly.

This report is certainly consistent with an economy that is trying to make a recovery, but a weak recovery. When you start to back out the volatile components, it's not all that weak. We're picking it up, but these numbers tell us the economy will come back slowly.

Recent trends in this index strongly suggest that the largely anticipated path towards economic recovery has in all likelihood already begun,

Exports increased by such a small amount, it's not enough to tell me the inventory problem is going to go away. We need world economic growth to start picking up.

If the war's prospects improve from here, consumer optimism is likely to improve, while if we see further setbacks of the type we experienced this past weekend, then we must be prepared to see a dip in consumer sentiment threatening to slow the pace of consumer spending further.