Mark Bryant Quotations

While Mark and I share the same loss, we do not share the same experiences,

Six months into the budget we were under budget on revenue across all the courts,

I think we're sort of in a holding pattern as we get ready for the second quarter earnings, which start pouring in around mid July,

I think any news out of OPEC tomorrow is likely to provide more of a psychological boost than anything else,

I think a payrolls number that varies widely from estimates will shake up stocks, ... But as long as we're roughly in line with forecasts, there probably won't be much stock reaction.

I think it's pretty much built into the market the Fed will raise rates by 25 percentage points, ... If they don't, that may upset the market, particularly since some of the recent (economic) reports have been weaker.

I think the understanding is that he might admonish congress a bit on spending, but otherwise, he is unlikely to say anything that would ruffle the markets, ... He knows how the markets jump on his every word, so he'll be careful.

People are starting to move from factoring in a 25 basis point rise to expecting a 50 basis point rise, ... If Friday's number is particularly strong, people may take that as a sign that rates will rise as soon as at the June meeting.

Martina often wondered, 'If it's so much better there, why stay here?'

The 2 mill increase translates into a dollar increase of nearly $1.2 million,

Mid-year budget amendments for health insurance and for state agencies are around $200,000, ... Which caused the budget to be off by $500,000.

When that change was made about $370,000 was taken out of the budget in revenue collected,

With so few negative pre-announcements, many of the earnings should meet or exceed expectations, ... So it's what is in the forecasts that will determine the market direction.

When looking at what is needed to close out the year, the only needed raise was 2 mills,

There is some concern with the strength of the economy going forward, ... and that's why you are seeing the economically sensitive names getting hit especially hard. What few gainers you see today are mostly in healthcare and other defensive sectors.

There's no conviction out there, ... There's a lot of concern that the pace of the economic growth is slowing, and summer is just a seasonal tough time.

I've never seen anyone pay as much attention to each detail as Brian does. Because of him, our players go into games with a great sense of what to expect.

The three hurdles that we had to get over this summer, we got over without incident.

After the convention, after Labor Day, volume should pick up and we'll go from there,

Oil keeps gaining and it doesn't seem to want to stop, ... It's hard to get any (stock) traction when that's happening.

Oil is certainly not helping, ... We passed $50 a barrel, and as to be expected, people are now talking $60 or more, which is uncharted territory.

A re-analysis of pertinent figures at Monday's meeting led the board to consider and adopt the lower figure,

This is hard, so please bear with me.

A lot of people are still on vacation right now, the summer doldrums have kicked in, and everyone is waiting on Friday's payrolls number, ... There's just not going to be much liquidity until then.

A lot of people were expecting last year's rally to stretch out, and what we've seen has been disappointing.

A lot of this (rally) you can attribute to oil being down more than a dollar, ... You had basically a one-stock decline with 3M this morning, and because that is somewhat seen as a proxy for the economy, like GE, it was weighing on the blue chips.

There's a tremendous amount of speculation in that market right now, and I think the weekly report came out and people just jumped on it,

It's absolutely pure stewardship, the beneficial use of what otherwise might be considered waste.

It's the first day of the quarter, which means there was a lot of end-of-quarter window dressing yesterday. So a lot of people who bought yesterday are looking for reasons to sell today.

It's basically an options expiration push, and it's continuing this sort of stealth rally we've had for the last few weeks.

Oil would need to move a lot higher before it really starts to have the impact on the economy that people worry about. But the fact that it is always part of the daily conversation about stocks gives it this big impact.

In that very moment when I had the reality of knowing that six of my children were gone, God did something very precious, ... The Garden of Prayer.

I think next week will be dependent on the Iraqi elections, ... If things don't go too badly, there is little bloodshed and a clear winner, it will be another step forward for the country.

He's using a good concept. The question becomes: Can you develop a market and will the public ultimately accept the use of this product in their homes and in their workplaces? It's still too early to tell.

The market had gotten pounded for a few days, and the Dow fell below 10,000 Monday, which still has some mental significance, ... So we're getting a nice bounce today.

The half mill was a hedge factor in case of emergency,

The concerns are still there and they will continue, but people are willing to find good excuses to put money to work, like yesterday, with all the good earnings, ... Interest rates remain at historic lows, so even if they rise 50 or 100 basis points, if we keep seeing double-digit earnings growth each quarter, the earnings will outpace the higher rates.

The market has every reason to trade down, and so far I think it's showing some resilience,