NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The stock market gyrations
that have boosted sales of antacids among traders in
recent weeks will come to an end and the Dow Jones
industrial average will surpass the 12,000 mark
before the millennium, one of Wall Street's most
respected analysts said Tuesday.
"I raised my target for the Dow to just over 12,000
in July and I still think that's doable," Ralph
Acampora, chief technical analyst with Prudential
Securities, told CNNfn. "This is a very different
animal. Buy the dips."
Throughout July, stock market gains have been
almost non-existent as investors, worried about the
prospect of higher interest rates, side-stepped the
market. In the past week or so, with the exception of
Tuesday's 130-point gain, interest rate fears have
kept investors well away from Wall Street.
But Acampora stood by his earlier assessment
Tuesday, insisting that the big bear already came
and went last year between July and October.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is almost unchanged
in the past 13 weeks
"I'm surprised at the speed and the damage that
we saw in the past few days, but I think we'll repair
that damage and move higher," he said. "When you
see a stock like Lucent (LU) go from 80 to 63 in eight
days, it suggests things are oversold. I think there's
some great value out there."
Some of that damage came from interpretation of
Alan Greenspan's congressional testimony last
week, in which the Fed chief hinted that he may raise
interest rates again to cool the economy. Higher
rates hurt companies' profits by making borrowing
more expensive.
"It wasn't just Alan Greenspan, it was something
else out there that spooked the market," Acampora
said, "maybe some of the year-2000 issues. I didn't
think the Y2K issue would hit the market soon."
Acampora named some of his favorite stocks,
including financial services provider Citigroup Inc. (C)
and oil prodfucer Chevron Corp. (CHV). "If you look at
the price of crude, I think you'll see it go over 20
bucks a barrel, and that will really benefit energy
stocks," he said.
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