Sam Stovall Quotes (34 Quotes)

If they don't do it tomorrow, they will likely do it in January.

Looking back at other negative events such as Sept. 11 and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the markets reacted sharply to the downside. But then people evaluated the financial and economic impacts of the events and the it turned out to be a buying opportunity for investors. Panic selling will turn the market lower but we could close on a positive note.

If you were to buy those industries that in the prior 12 months had beaten the SP 500, if you had purchased those, held them for another 12 months, you indeed over the past 10 years would have beaten the market seven of those 10 times.

They recently reported earning where they'd shown that revenues were not as strong as had been anticipated a lot of that money still comes from your traditional long-distance carrying revenues. However, we like the group longer-term because we believe that, particularly for MCI, they're gravitating more towards the cellular and wireless category, which is the third group in telecom, and that one actually is in a positive camp.

December is one of the best months of the year for retailers. Of the past four years, retailers have beaten the market. Typically, everyone says the Christmas season is going to be horrible and they don't want to be in retailers, only to see December do very well for the market and even better for retailers.

Some of the restaurant companies are doing exceptionally well and I think demographics, longer term, are going to indicate that more people are going to be buying their food outside the home, rather than preparing it inside the home,

The market does not seem to be worried about the long-term effects of the hurricane. It seems that we're seeing again today that the market really wants to move higher.

Everyone is looking to dish the technology stocks on higher interest rates, but they continue to show they are not interest-rate sensitive, or at least as much as people would like.

The month of May was a counter-trend rally where investors used good news as a reason to temper their bearishness and cancel out short-selling contracts.

Basically the top ten industries were those that are economically sensitive and are bouncing back from their deeply oversold condition last year as a result of lower interest rates. We do believe the Fed will remain aggressive with its easing interest rate policy but we feel the earnings are going to be pretty bad for the first quarter, so the market is likely to tread water for awhile.

History would say that, whenever we have an extended up-move, chances are you need to catch your breath and go sideways for a while. Is it possible that will happen now Yes. Is it necessary No.

I think investors are a lot like dieters. They look at January as a good month to start anew.

The hope is on the consumer to spend, to pull us out. If the consumer doesn't do that, then who

As far as the Merrill Lynch note is concerned, it's like reading an obituary that someone had died without knowing that they were still alive. Merrill cut its stock exposure to 45 percent, but why was it at 50 percent to begin with That should raise some concerns.

Possibly we could see a little bit of profit taking because investors had been anticipating that when the Fed does meet next week that they won't raise interest rates,

Increased volatility can certainly cause increase tension, but that's not a reason to step out. It is certainly white-knuckle time, but that does not necessarily mean the good run has ended.

On average, coming out of a bad September, October rises 5 percent and the fourth quarter rises 4 percent overall. So if you use history as a guide, we're looking for a bounce.

Stocks in the past twenty years have been... the best investment vehicle that's available,

An investor who was long the market from November to April, but then adopted a defensive approach by rotating into either the SP Consumer Staples or Health Care sectors during May through October, would have found ... that the returns were well worth the effort.

The re-emergence of Kerry as a viable candidate has also put some pressure on health care stocks.

The forecast from SP is near 18 percent growth in earnings in 1997 over 1996,

I would regard today as positive, although we're clearly not out of the woods yet.

Our feeling is that energy stocks will be good performers, ... While inventories seem to be in balance with demand now, we see that as being temporary, that demand will soon start to outpace supply this summer.

Many say this much-needed digestion of gains is long overdue, as bull markets typically require a correction of more than 10 percent in order to allow the bull to maintain its upward tendencies.

I think investors want to see improvement in the economic data so that the feeling is that the Fed doesn't need to lower interest rates. That in itself is a positive.

You need to digest some of those gains in order to move higher.

We are really not sure if the economy is continuing to expand or continuing to contract,

The rotation has more to do with defensiveness and dividend yield, than with the actual quality of the investments themselves.

There could be a little bit of a concern if they come in stronger than expected.

Usually if you wait for fundamentals to be confirmed, you've waited too long, ... What Enron has done is given people who've dillydallied a chance to get in not too far from where they could have last fall.

Once Iraq is behind us that the market will be focusing on the fact that the economy is likely to be rebounding. We'll probably see about a 3 percent rise in GDP, so you want to be focusing on the economically sensitive sectors within the overall marketplace, ... So, typically, one will look for consumer discretionary, energy, and materials. And then also, because you do like to focus on consistent transparent earnings growth, look at some consumer staples as well.

It's an industry that does not experience a change in demand whether the economy is expanding or contracting, or whether the market is rising or falling. When you die, you die. The only difference could be the families of the one who passed away, if times are tough, could opt for a less expensive funeral.

The beige book should give us a better indication of where the strength is, whether it's in all the Federal (Reserve) districts or just one area.

While it is difficult to anticipate unanticipated events, investors could become increasingly concerned about oil, earnings and interest rates -- the trio of trepidation -- in the traditionally weak third quarter.