Ram Kolluri Quotes (54 Quotes)

I'm pleased with the first-quarter gains, but I don't think that you can extrapolate that the whole year will be positive as a result. We still expect low single-digit returns for the SP 500 this year.

I'm somewhat in the cautious camp. The rally may continue, but this is exactly how we felt in 1999 and 2000 before we started questioning earnings. I feel there is going to be a reality check somewhere.

The economy's problem is not interest rates it's that there is this global concern about terrorism. In this scenario, investors and risk-takers are saying, 'Why should I get in the middle of this nonsense I'll wait on the sidelines'.

We've been given this embarrassment of riches where the market seems to want to go up every day, regardless of the news.

Some sectors like retail are bracing themselves for a slowdown in the economy in the second half. So you can see some of the weakness in retail stocks. But corporate earnings are looking good. They are afraid of the Fed and that is still in the minds of people. Once burned, twice shy.

It's like (Dickens') 'A Tale of Two Cities,' 'it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,' ... If you get away from the stock noise, the economy is recovering, manufacturing is picking up, you've got the services report this morning. But the market just wants to ignore this information.

With technology stocks the watch-word is caution. What's happening now is that their valuations are reaching their earnings. Until we have those earnings catch up, any disappointments are creating huge volatility in the sector.

Today is a digestion period after yesterday's rally. I don't see a big follow-through. But the momentum suggests that the direction is up. There's a lot of cash still sitting on the sidelines.

In the spring, the worry was that the economy was slowing down. Now it's summer and we can see the economy is on track and earnings are looking good.

The street was expecting a strong confirmation from Wal-Mart saying, 'Yes, we had a terrific Thanksgiving sales,'

I do think this is a lull in the market rather than a new bear trend. One month does not a trend make.

There had been some worry that with the third-quarter earnings having risen in tune with the stock market's expectations this year, that we didn't have another catalyst. But now we see that that's not necessarily the case. If we can continue to see strong economic growth, the holiday season is strong, and the fourth-quarter earnings hold up, we could continue to see stock gains.

If there's military action, it's going to have to be soon. The heat is oppressive come March, April, May in that part of the world. In the desert it can reach 120 degrees. So I have a feeling something will happen in February.

We're so stretched out, so oversold at this point, that we have no idea what a potential snap back could be. This is like a hot, dry forest and one good spark is all we need for it to really take off.

SDL is a component supplier. They supply a lot of materials to Nortel Networks and they're a nice story in the optical fiber equipment, ... ... optical fiber investments will raise from 3 billion in 1999 to approximately 15 billion in 2003. Globally the demand is going to be 40 billion for year 2003. And these are the people who are going to supply all the equipment.

Oil prices and interest rates are the twin problems right now, ... People are looking at these prices and saying 'how is this going to trickle down through the economy'

It didn't look like anything much was going to happen in the middle of the election rhetoric, but we ended up seeing a pretty good advance after all.

We are experiencing these extreme levels of fear, with investors saying that they are not interested in hearing any positives, like the retail sales this morning, and that they want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, ... The silver lining is that this kind of panic is historically the classic feeling when a bear market is at its bottom.

Unless there is a dramatic, clear-cut winner, which at this point is not statistically likely, there is little chance of this being resolved right away, ... I think both sides are automatically primed to challenge certain results.

The earnings growth is a positive. The problem is that the ten-year note yield is currently standing at 4.85 percent and is pushing toward 5 percent and our friends at the Fed are not telling us when rate hikes are done.

I thought the recent sell-off in the equity market was somewhat overdone. I'm still in the camp that believes we will see a high-single-digit return for equities in total this year.

There is the possibility that some of these big companies have been biding their time and could spring a few positive surprises towards the end of the quarter.

This is a very preliminary report, and it will surely be revised downward in the neighborhood of 5 or 5.5 percent, but even that is extraordinary, coming off of last quarter's growth, ... People know that it will be revised downward, and so maybe they are a little cautious today, but you need to look at the longer-term implications of this.

Really, in the market today, the most significant mover is the earnings. If earnings do well, the market will do well, if not, then the market won't.

The only big curve ball I see through the end of the year will be the somewhat lackluster Christmas sales that retailers are looking for. Unfortunately, the impact of higher heating bills on sales is going to be felt.

We're back to the wonderful world of optimism. You have to be cautious what you do here. The question is 'Are we getting ahead of ourselves'. Will we see some volatility You bet.

We've had a big stock run since hitting the lows last March. Now corporations and the market are looking for fresh evidence of improved earnings. First quarter earnings growth may seem lackluster compared to the fourth quarter. I think rather it will be the second-quarter earnings that impress.

If we see improvements in earnings outlooks, some kind of resolution in the Middle East, and improvements in consumer confidence we'd see a significant rally. But, I don't know when that's going to happen.

We're reeling. Everything is up on the table and we are going to be under this cloud for a while. For a long time, people have been so focused on earnings that corporate America realized that they can get away with playing games with the balance sheet, and now it's catching up with them.

This war situation is getting out of control. Buyers are on strike. Six out of the last eight weeks have been down. The action is completely emotion-driven.

And unfortunately, this group probably has more digestion ahead of it.

Earnings season is finished, and the economy is taking this one step forward, one step back path. I'm looking for us to be in a holding pattern at least through the rest of February.

The market has a split personality here. I am personally not convinced of anything. This is a deeply oversold condition that's long overdue for a technical bounce. Valuations in the equity market are not compelling. The market is starved right now for some decent news.

Most of my clients are conservative investors who are looking for low volatility and tax-advantaged investing.

On one hand, there's a hopeful feeling that the hurricane will only have a temporary impact, but on the other hand there's worry that it could be worse than we are anticipating.

Earnings estimates are really, really weak -- and the focus really is earnings. In October, a rosy picture was painted for 2003. Now people are saying the second half will be good. I'm very, very leery about the economic condition. Come July, August, I'm afraid the earnings estimates will be cut.

We're looking at the headline news, but the market is being supported by the girders of the economy, a basic, strong foundation, ... I don't expect a dramatic rally from here, but we are very much on track for a high-single-digit, low-double-digit total return for the year.

The market has been happy with the first-quarter results, but why We're seeing companies beat lowered estimates and do it because of cost-cutting, not top-line growth. Unless the earnings start to improve, the economy picks up, this market is going to continue to be too richly valued.

What concerns me is that the weakness in equity markets predates the war. The travel industry is having major problems, natural gas prices remain stubbornly higher and earnings growth has been very sporadic, ... The war is going to be a much longer and more involved process than people think. We are going to be under the gun, even when the conflict itself is over. If we don't see a dramatic recovery in earnings and a drop in oil once the conflict ends, these rallies that we have now won't be meaningful.

The numbers have been good, and due to the strength of the global economic recovery, I contend that the second, third and fourth quarter earnings will be better than what people are currently expecting,

In today's market, there's nothing definitive. It's mostly profit-taking. We've seen fireworks in the recent past and I think we'll trade sideways until early December, when the fourth-quarter earnings pre-announcements come out.

You have to really look at them. No. 1, we're not buying into the fact that earnings are going to be dramatically up. So what we are looking for is companies that are selling with the low PE ratios, have decent balance sheets, and paying decent dividends to begin with, ... They all pay very generous dividends, while we're holding on.

At the peak people were throwing money at anything, regardless of the fundamentals. Now you have the opposite. There are good companies and some decent bargains out there, and people are completely ignoring them with all this panic.

This has really become a spectator sport. When your team is up everyone is in the stands cheering and when your team is down, people are on the sidelines. But euphoria about the war going right and depression about it going wrong represents a very short-term view of the market.

Basically we're trading sideways until there's an indication of corporate spending and of earnings picking up. Institutional investors are buying and selling, but the individual investor is still on the sidelines.

Most of the bad news and pre-announcements are out of the way. What we really need now is guidance that says revenue growth is on the way. Corporations have done everything they can to cut costs, now we need to see that growth.

Yesterday, a couple companies came in and surprised us. At this point in time, I'm inclined to take profits. I feel that we are fairly valued.

The earnings are coming out as expected, but these days there's a 'what have you done for me lately' attitude in the market.

At the Congressional hearings next week, there will be a lot of noise about the Bush administration's budget, the budget deficits and Social Security, as well as talk of interest rates.

Higher energy prices, new fears of terrorism, some profit taking after the previous rally -- all of that is why we've come back from the late January, early February levels.