Snippets from Reuters. One day it's rose glasses on. The next day, it's rose glasses off. Then other days, it's bifocals:
No longer satisfied with higher earnings numbers, investors are dissecting corporate
scorecards, scanning them for any signs that the results are not as sunny as they
seem.
``It's almost like investors are looking for a reason to sell,'' Hyman added.
Pressure on the Dow came from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HWP.N), the computer maker
which spun off Agilent completely in June. HP was down 7-1/16 to 124-1/4.
Agilent fell 24-13/16 to 48-3/16, and was the New York Stock Exchange's biggest loser in percentage terms.
The market rallied Thursday after Greenspan tempered his usual warnings about
inflation with upbeat talk on productivity growth. Some Wall Street pros took
Greenspan's balanced tone on inflation as a sign that the Fed may not raise interest
rates again this year.
But on Friday, Wall Street's mood had soured despite the flow of largely
forecast-topping earnings results, analysts said.
``We're looking at these earnings numbers, and we're spending more time looking at
the part of the glass that's one-eighth empty and ignoring that it's seven-eighths full,''
said David Sowerby, market strategist for Loomis Sayles in Detroit. |
