Jack Baker

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• The political situation starts to cool a little, but then we get the Ashcroft news and the market freaks out.
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    • There's going to be nervousness for the next few weeks. From an historical perspective, September tends to be one of the worst months. In addition, you have a lot of people moving off to the sidelines ahead of September 11.
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        • It's like a vicious cycle. How the hell could you turn around and be a buyer with all of this stuff going on?
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            • Until earnings and forecasts start turning around, we are going to stay stuck in this tight trading range. There is no incentive for buyers to get back in the market.
            
            
            • I still think we're heading higher. The long-term types like me should sit tight. I don't really see any major problems. The only thing I don't like, of course, is still the narrowness of the advance. But, on the other hand, the Russell hit another high.
            
            
            • People seem to be coming to the realization that the economy might, in fact, pick up in the second half. I don't see any negatives in the near term to derail this market.
            
            
            • In the financial sector, which is one of our biggest areas, in the regional banks, the large money center regional banks, Wells Fargo is still our top pick, ... The stock looks very cheap, [and] hasn't come down that much, which I think indicates how strong they are.
            
            
            • I think we're getting close to capitulation.
            
            
            • I think Greenspan is setting the market up for something much more palatable. If you get the Dow back to 6,500 or 6,600, and you take that real speculation out of the marketplace, people are going to receive the rate rise better. I think the market has a chance to rally after that.
            
            
            • I see the flow of funds still exceptionally favorable for the stock market. 8,000 is my number. We should be there in the next week or two.
            
            
            • The [economic] numbers are very benign. The economy in fact seems to be slowing a little bit. I know it's hard to read this week-to-week, month-to-month. But it does appear that it's slowing.
            
            
            • Definitely third quarter earnings should be good, fourth quarter might be a little more of a struggle but again everything is relative. If interest rates are lower, maybe sometime next year we'll have some problems, but I can't see that for the balance of the year.
            
            
            • I'm not really happy with the volatility. What I am happy with is the market's ability to rally after these sharp declines.
            
            
            • The stock of course, in light of that news up 5 or 6 points this week, ... But we still like the stock a lot, and on any pullback we'd be a buyer.