David Blitzer Quotes (25 Quotes)

Clearly, in the extreme case there comes a time when we pull the plug and chuck a company out but we want to keep turnover really low, ... But if a company clearly and substantially violates the addition criteria it's a candidate for removal.

The problem is that instead of having one way to calculate corporate earnings that everybody understands, we have two or three methods. And the one that most people use, there is virtually no agreement at all about what it means.

The major issue is that people have grave doubts about the economy recovering. There's no recession, and the economy will recover. Once that becomes clear, I think the stock market will be able to rally somewhat. Until then, we're in for a lot of bouncing around.

This was one time hit from oil prices, ... We knew oil had to go up from an unsustainably low number late last year.

The second quarter was clearly a soft quarter, there was a lot of weakness in manufacturing. I think we'll see a rebound but it won't show up until the August numbers. Getting GM back to work will be a big plus in getting things going again.

This is a year of unusually low SP index turnover due to the low number of mergers and acquisitions in the large-cap sector. So we are making the change at a time when the impact on index investors will be minimized.

It's just a lack of consistency. Companies change the definition quarter to quarter, whichever looks best - that's not a reasonable way to do business.

People will stockpile food, home heating oil if they can buy it.

Also, they're in such bad trouble, who notices the fuel costs

Whether you call it consolidation, rationalization or getting your competitor to go out of business, it's a way for these companies to effectively deal with the collapse of commodity prices. In virtually every sector involved in something that comes out of the ground, we've seen consolidation.

Clearly, if we take a stock out at 2, and 6 months later it's trading at 10, we look silly and people who invest in the index will say, 'I missed a five-times gain'. But in talking to people who run index funds, the vast majority of managers say take the low-priced stocks out,

For the Chinese equities markets to assume its position in the world, it must open up.

The market seemed to think the Fed's bias was a note of panic, but I didn't see that at all. It's a note of caution. If the Fed saw a boom coming, it would shift to a neutral bias. I don't think it should scare companies completely, but I certainly wouldn't go spend like a drunken sailor.

The employment data showed a lot of weakness. Before that, I was on the fence about whether the Fed would cut 25 (basis) points or 50, but I got off in a hurry when I saw that.

For the vast majority of Americans, their home is their largest and most valuable asset, and in a period of rising housing prices and increased concerns about a possible housing bubble, reliable information on their biggest asset is extremely important.

It's a sign that this is a company that represents the economy, represents the stock market and should be a member of the SP 500.

There is truth to the fact that competition and markets are more global, especially in the U.S., where being protective of the home company is a little less fashionable than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Merging provides a role for these folks and makes them a surviving entity.

The stock market suggests that there is fantastic bullish sentiment -- everybody feels good, looks good, thinks wonderfully of this economy, and indeed it is very difficult to say anything wrong about this economy,

Increasingly, companies would pretty much write their own accounting rules when they put together their earnings releases. We said to ourselves, let's figure out how to do this the right way so the earnings number really tells us something about what's going on and the number is consistent from company to company.

Over long periods of time, stock markets generally go up. Japan was obviously an exception if you chose the wrong 12 years.

The equal-weighted index will give you more exposure to smaller stocks. If you believe that small caps outperform large caps, and most data suggests they do, then the equal-weight should give you a small edge over long periods.

I think it's a fairly narrow change. I don't think it's anything to worry about.

This investment continues our focus of investing in high-quality, stable, cash-generative businesses.

A lot of companies are feeling increasing pressure to be responsive to their shareholders and to make sure their shareholders are sharing their profits. One way to do that is to raise dividends.

There's not a lot of pricing flexibility, there is a little more upward pressure on wages, and when you add that all together it can be very difficult to raise profit margins.