Joseph McAlinden Quotations

I think the Dow will hold up fairly well. The stocks are much cheaper (than Nasdaq issues), and the supply-demand conditions in the businesses are much more positive.

I think divergence is the name of the game for the first half of the year.

People are questioning the underlying fundamentals of (technology stocks).

We have this backdrop of the Fed raising rates and a growing fear that there's more to come based on economic statistics. What will determine how we do is what those statistics look like over the next few months.

The question is what catalyst will get it going. My guess is more signs of a stronger economy. That might be higher interest rates, but you may need that to get small caps going. They may improve as the bond (goes down).

While I love technology longer term, I think technology is going to be very problematic in the rest of the year because nobody knows the ramifications of Y2K.

When the Fed is easing monetary policy, you don't want to get bearish -- you don't want to stand in front of a moving train.

At the moment there is not a broad-based systemic inflation problem bubbling up in the economy. The Fed as a precaution has raised rates a little bit, will raise rates a little bit more but I don't think they are going to do a whole lot more after that.

The strength in these stocks can only happen when you have healthy markets.

People get white knuckles from turbulence. But I don't think what we're experiencing in the markets is a suggestion that we're on the verge of something really horrible.

There is substantial further advance looming now on the heels of this move. There are a couple of things that could show up down the road that we should keep our eye on.

The news from 3M is very positive. If we keep seeing momentum from these big blue-chip companies, the market could do well.

Economic consolidations will lead to higher earnings. Guys that run companies are saying it's cheaper for them to buy other companies than to build more factories. That tells you the market is still attractive.

Investors tend not to have a big problem with split government because for many investors, the government that governs the least is the government that governs the best.