Henry Willmore Quotations

It will be worth the trouble for investors seeking a turn in momentum to squint carefully at the data and notice that profits did not fall as much in the second quarter as they did in the first.quarter.

We should start to see better numbers in the May data. If we don't see improvement, it would be much more worrisome than the recent weakness and might inspire the Fed to cut in June. My own view is that we will see better numbers.

The thing that jumps out is the downward revisions on the data, which were pretty substantial and give you a much weaker picture than expected. I think these revisions reinforce the case for a (half-percentage) point cut at (Tuesday's Fed) meeting.

The more important development more recently was the tax cut that was enacted over the weekend, which will provide some pretty good support for consumer spending over the next few quarters.

If inflation were to slow down some more, that would put off the date of any further tightening. But if it's stable or rising, the Fed will focus more on job numbers. We think the labor market indicators will be fairly strong.

On balance, I'd say the numbers this morning were more good than bad.

This is a clear shift in U.S. policy and it probably indicates that the U.S. has received some concessions from Japan.

Profits will probably still decline in the second quarter, but at a slower rate than in the first quarter.

Their number is in the right ballpark. It could have a substantial effect potentially.

The Fed's problem is that the fed funds rate itself has very little effect on the economy. We continue to see movements in financial markets that basically officiate the Fed's attempt to slow things down.