Peter Greene News Quotations

Lowe's was maybe a bit of a letdown this morning, and the other retailers and some of the homebuilding stocks are down. The Dow transportation average is also weak today, despite UAL's gains. There's really no new news today to push us too much in either direction. We've had a great run recently and a minor decline isn't so bad.

The rally that we've had for the last couple of weeks was basically concluded this week. You're seeing investors starting to discount positive news from companies and a Fed rate cut next week,

What's happening today is very telling of where the market is right now. Typically, when there is negative news people tend to make 'flight-to-safety' moves into bonds and gold, but that isn't happening. That tells me that asset classes in the near term are very tired, and that we could see more of a pull back from here over the next few months.

War news is having a fingernail-biting impact generally. Right now, there's a sense of people not wanting to do much until the troops get to Baghdad, which could happen in the next day or two. But there's also the hope of some sort of diplomatic resolution before this situation becomes a runaway train. I don't think either side wants to see this prolonged.

There's no economic news due Friday, no earnings, and not many people are going to be around. We could gain a little Friday if the seasonal tendencies kick in, but it won't be a significant move. I don't think this week is indicative of what's going on in the market generally.

There's big fear. People are selling because they don't know what's going to happen. The news out of the BBC this morning that Iraq is getting ready for chemical warfare is a big part of it.

Stocks have priced in a lot of good news right now and you're seeing that in effect. Good news is bad news and bad news is bad news.

The dollar news has already been in people's minds for some time, so it's not carrying much sway.