Alan Ackerman Stocks Quotations

We're seeing strength in technology and current optimism is based upon inventories worked down -- even Motorola indicated they're making progress in that direction, ... Techs are doing well and people will be combing their lists of stocks to buy for the long-term, but it's going to be a highly selective process.

I think that the wide swings in the market created a lot of pain. We have a lot of walking wounded among portfolio holders. And many institutional types decided to purge problem stocks from their portfolios as a result of the drop we saw earlier in the week. We're really in a week this week that could go in either direction, and again those four variables, the four E's, could affect that.

People are concerned about higher interest rates ahead and they think the best way to protect themselves is to own growth stocks that may not be as hurt by higher rates,

Stay with the big stocks with the big backlog and big trend of earnings and with management that have been there before,

There's a feeling that oil prices will work higher still. The U.S. is more dependent on foreign imports than it has been in a while, and with oil prices on the rise, buyers moved quickly into oil stocks and energy related stocks,

Selectivity is likely to be the key of the market. Seasoned players are looking for more value opportunities now. They're looking for stocks that missed the rally.

The Nasdaq appears to be probing for a bottom, ... The more erratic the Nasdaq is, the more attractive the old economy stocks appear to be for investors who want to be risk averse.

I like two stocks, Apache and Ocean Energy. I don't own either of them. The firm doesn't make a market in any of them. We don't have an investment banking relationship, to the best of my knowledge, but I think both stocks have done well in the poor market, ... Apache is really building a pipeline of reserves. They drill in seven major countries. They're natural gas rich. They have held in this market and I think we can look for big earnings coming up over the next year or two.

The market story today is essentially Cisco. It's pulling lots of other stocks down,

The market is attempting to stabilize after a terrific run, ... Many stocks moved up without any fundamental underpinnings and corporate earnings, by and large, look less than impressive. Portfolio managers are looking for visibility of earnings over the next quarter or two.

The level of frustration for many traders has reached a point where many are just tossing stocks into the market and have decided not to play for now,