Tom Hougaard Quotations

...we are holding the flat line, but we are vulnerable to the downside. A lot of people are getting worried about the market...we are long overdue for a decent correction.

There is no doubt that the recent rally is fueled by a lot of short covering from bears thinking the New Orleans debacle would cause jitters on Wall Street.

The profit warning from Sun Micro is casting somewhat of a shadow over the European markets.

I feel that we were so long overdue a correction after the euphoria around the New Year. In the big scheme of things the only thing that worries me is that if those investors who use fundamentals to evaluate stocks change their view, then we could have seen a top that will last for some time.

It is a 100 percent certainty according to the U.S. interest rate bonds that Mr. Greenspan will cut rates by 25 basis points.

Valuations are very high for the current economic climate or indeed even a prosperous climate. So it looks like what we are dealing with here is a bear market rally.

We are obviously expecting to a see a sea of red this morning. The selling has been relentless through the night and currently the Dow is being called down about 100 points.

We could see a little bit of a relief bounce if the (economic) numbers are good. Also, today and Monday are the last days of the month, so it wouldn't surprise me if some funds throw a little bit of money at the market to boost some key names ahead of the 31st of October.

As it often happens on market holidays in the U.S., the European market goes very quiet and trades in a range all day.

The slide in the Nikkei just goes to show how deeply overbought these markets are. Players have been caught up in the euphoria. Now it's time to face reality.

Oil companies will take it on the chin today.

They may even ease rates because of Katrina.

...this kind of sell-off is bound to affect the market for some time and we may very well see the market trade lower over the coming weeks or at least trade sideways without making new highs.

Stocks in general have been trading near their highs but volume has been a real obstacle to move prices higher. It may still be early but it looks to me as if we will see an attempt to take Dow above 9,450.

The U.S. (market) is still stuck in a rut. We are calling the Dow up on the day, but so far every rally in the pre-market this week has been met with selling once the regular trading session got under way,

The equity market is still undecided about the overall trend of stocks. All in all the earnings so far have not been well received by investors and it looks as if stocks have to come down in price to attract investors.

The Dow needs to gain pace above 10,500 to stand a chance of attracting fresh speculative money. Our clients have made a significant shift and are far more interested in trading UK and European stocks rather than chasing non-performing stocks.

The markets are not that strong, it's the banks that are keeping things afloat on the day.

The market is on fire and with sentiment so bullish there is every reason to expect more upside, ... There are clearly many traders who are betting on an autumn rally to take the Dow to 10,000, and they positioned themselves in the market yesterday.

The market is looking at a really strong open as Rita didn't blow as hard.

The market is clearly in a limbo with the bulls and the bears all squared up. The Dow is bullish above 9,600 and a move above this level could lead to a rally to 9,750. The bearish case is a move below 9,525, which would lead the indices into the long-awaited correction. Anything in between is a purely traders playing the trading range.