Brian Fabbri Quotations

There is no doubt that the street was expecting the worst and they were prepared for the worst. Once the numbers came out a rally ensued and it trickled over to the equity market... The domestic economy is just honey.

Sentiment is finally beginning to show that consumers are getting a little bit unnerved about higher gasoline prices.

Business confidence is very low, and thus they're maintaining as cautious an approach as possible to their activity, whether that's hiring, building inventory or anything else.

It adds a little more power to yesterday's wording change in the Fed statement. Fifty (basis point interest rate hike) is coming, maybe not in May, but June is really starting to stand out now.

Typically, consumers are waiting for all kinds of deals before they go out and purchase an automobile. They didn't get them in July, so perhaps they're going to wait until maybe August.

We had a big decline (in September) and I thought maybe there would some small rebound, but we didn't get it. It was orders that improved very dramatically and that is a positive, but the employment component is a bit worrying.

There are an awful lot of cost pressures in the system. While they may not be manifest in final goods prices just yet, the numbers tell you that, unless companies find new ways to cut their costs, profit margins are going to be squeezed.

This year, retailers probably hired a normal number of people. We'll wind up with a large seasonal factor boosting a normal number, and end up with a large gain in retail help.

Electric utility output was down a bit because we had such cool August, but otherwise, manufacturing was pretty hot.

Rapid economic growth in the first quarter will not deter (the Fed) from their intended pause in tightening policy after another hike in the May meeting.

Production should be up, and it should be up fairly strongly,

Declines in the real estate activity will probably spill over into consumer confidence and eventually lead to slower spending.

There's a refreshing degree of consistency. The number of new jobs is consistent with the rest of the economic data that shows that the economy is moving along quite strongly.

It's not the dollar that's weakened a great deal, but rather the perception in the financial markets that the yen is strengthening a great deal, ... So it's a yen problem.

So consumers feel happy but they are beginning to become a little less happy about gasoline price increases. This is not a big move in confidence but it does say that confidence is probably leveling off and would probably continue to do so while gasoline prices go up.

The message of solid growth and inflation at the top end of the comfort zone may mean that the Fed is keeping all its options open, but that more tightening 'may' be required, and that the data will decide.

Christmas spending this season is likely to outperform most analysts middling expectations.

This is almost the best of all possible worlds, where labor is making money, and yet corporations have been able to offset that with productivity, and keep it themselves in terms of profits. It reminds everyone of the important contributions technology has been making to increased productivity in tight labor markets.

All guns seemed to be firing at the same time for the economy in the third quarter.

The markets have clearly responded to Greenspan's testimony. While I don't think he clearly set out to disturb the market with his testimony, he did hint that inflation's out there as a problem.... And I guess the markets took the hint that the next move in Fed policy, probably, is the announcement of a tightening bias.

The markets have clearly responded to Greenspan's testimony, ... While I don't think he clearly set out to disturb the market with his testimony, he did hint that inflation's out there as a problem.... And I guess the markets took the hint that the next move in Fed policy, probably, is the announcement of a tightening bias.