Wednesday August 9 12:41 AM ET
Stock Market Sages Divided on Direction
By Haitham Haddadin
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some U.S. stock market sages say a sectoral bull market is still intact, while others warn of more pain ahead.
But a common theme sounded by the widely followed analysts, who spoke during a ``Mid-Summer Market Forecast'' panel discussion hosted by the New York Society of Security Analysts, was this: Picking quality stocks is key to making money.
Among the prominent Wall Street bulls, Ralph Acampora, director of technical analysis at Prudential Securities, told Reuters he was not revising his forecast that the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) may hit 12,500 to 13,000 by year end.
Acampura -- famous for a 1997 forecast that the Dow would reach 10,000 by the end of June 1998, a level the index crossed on March 16, 1999 -- also reiterated that he sees the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index (^IXIC - news) near 6,000 by June 2001.
On Tuesday, the Dow rallied 109.88 points to finish at 10,976.89, its seventh day in a row in positive territory, while the Nasdaq fell 14.44 points to close at 3,848.55, as tame inflation data stoked demand for interest-rate-sensitive shares like retailers.
``The sectoral bull market is alive and well ... I'm bullish,'' Acampora told the meeting.
``The Dow is not vulnerable, while the rest of the market was vulnerable but that's not the case any more,'' he added, although he did not rule out some short-lived corrective price moves in coming months.
The outlook was good, he said, as funds were not flowing out of the stock markets but rotating within the sectors, with a flight to quality ``old economy'' issues from high technology.
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