Barry Hyman Sales Quotations

Next week's retail sales numbers and inflation numbers are going to be some key statistics to give us a little bit more input into where the Fed stands.

Retail sales numbers were stronger than expected, and that shows that consumer are still spending, and I think that is weighing on the market today and it should. But it's not weighing on the Nasdaq, where you're seeing those really good earnings reports. People really regard tech as the place to make money.

I think we are still in a consolidation period, ... and I think we can't afford to overlook the impact of the economic news on the market. You had a retail sales number this morning that was in line but nothing spectacular and a rise in jobless claims.

Today, the catalyst in technology was the report that PC sales in the second quarter slowed. The PC sector feeds into the semiconductor sector, which feeds into other parts of technology.

The tame retail sales outlook helped the bond market. The market rewarded that with a very strong day. Financials and technology stocks righted themselves. We're on the cusp of taking out some important resistance levels.

The retail sales numbers we saw should have presumed a rally but we had some selling in Hewlett-Packard and NBC Internet. During the day, people started to realize that retail sales were good news.

The market is going to remain on the defensive and start to look at this developing technology story. To technology, that story is very important. It filters throughout the whole chain of PC sales to companies that produce chips.