Main Street crowd won't follow Wall Street
Thom Calandra, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 03/04/2002 11:17:00
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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - The rocky U.S. stock market is now above its January lows. Analysts are climbing over one another to recommend "Yahoo" and other sunken shares.
Almost alone on Wall Street, Morgan Stanley's Jay Pelosky isn't buying into the euphoria. Pelosky, a global strategist, sees America's swollen current account deficit as a risk to the dollar and dollar-linked assets, chiefly the U.S. stock market. "See the flash."
Gold, meanwhile, is still flirting with $300 an ounce. New York-traded oil futures at $22 a barrel are near a four-month high. Most mutual funds have lost their shareholders' hard-earned dough these past two years, even after the stock market's early March bloom.
Ordinary investors, those who depend on strategists like Pelosky to set them straight, are deeply skeptical of March's early rally in stocks. Some takes:
On gold ...
"I sold all my bond holdings . . . and put some more money in gold stocks. Why not? ( "See related story.") It appears you can't trust corporate managements, the auditors, or the Wall Street analysts. If Japan's economy falls into a black hole, U.S. investors will definitely feel it. Our president has a cavalier attitude about deficit-government spending that rivals Lyndon Johnson's. Given the current environment, I'll pass on dollar-denominated financial assets." -- Steve Westling, Atlanta |
