Hugh Johnson Numbers Quotations

The durable goods numbers are telling us that businesses are spending money, and that the outlook for the economy is solid. And after last week, the earnings numbers are encouraging. So we're seeing a good bump today.

These are the really important numbers because they give us a first look at January, and they include leading indicators.

The numbers across the board were pretty surprising. I would say that improvements in the leading indicators of the economy, like the employment and manufacturing numbers, is very encouraging and indicate that the economy is expanding and not contracting. It also suggests continued expansion into the first quarter.

It's not good news, ... Even though the focus is on the Middle East and oil prices, these numbers clearly are not going to stabilize the markets.

These numbers were highly impacted if not distorted by Hurricane Katrina.

Although they were close to expectations and maybe a little bit weaker, the numbers confirm that the economy generally is slowing, ... The report also confirms that the manufacturing sector of the economy is contracting.

There's fairly widespread anticipation that the economic numbers this week will be solid, though not great, and I think the market is reflecting that.

It's good news that the durable goods orders were stronger than expected, but those are August numbers and probably don't carry that much weight,

As the bull market progressed, analysts became more optimistic about next year's earnings. Now, it's the extent to which companies will hit their numbers for 2004 that will make next week so important for the market.