Brenda Buttner was joined by: Gary B. Smith, RealMoney.com columnist, Pat Dorsey, Morningstar.com columnist; Scott Bleier, chief investment strategist at Prime Charter; Tobin Smith, portfolio manager of ChangeWave Capital Partners; and Royce Kanofsky, chief market strategist at Investec Ernst & Company.
Trading Pit
The impact of the September 11th terrorist attacks has been felt in every facet of our lives. And the stock market has not been immune either. Since the markets opened a week after the attacks, the Dow is down 8%, the Nasdaq fell 12%, and the S&P 500 has lost 5%.
But Pat Dorsey says that now is the time to buy because a lot of stocks are cheaper than they should be. He said that there wouldn't be many opportunities to find this amount of blue chips at their current price.
Scott said, "There are different opportunities now then there has been in the last 10 years." He likes consumer staples and healthcare stocks.
The "B" in Gary B. Smith had stood for bear, but now it stands for bull. He thinks that now is the time to buy. He usually buys on strength, but he doesn't mind buying on dips when a quality company has had its stock drop dramatically in a very short amount of time on extremely high volume.
Tobin said that if you think the United States will be victorious in the next two or three years, then you are getting stocks at historically low prices. He likes mobile defense systems and public storage stocks
Royce agreed and said that this market has historically been resilient to events like this, dating back to Pearl Harbor. But, he warned that investors should be very wary of going after stories, such as a biotech company that has developed a cure for some toxic agent. He likes PC makers and automakers.
Chartman
Gary B. and Pat each picked a stock that they think is a buy, even though both had their prices drop dramatically since the attacks. Gary B. chose Carnival Cruise (CCL) (down 23% since the attacks) because it is in an uptrend and at a price near support level. Pat agreed because it is a leader in a strong industry and is at a cheap price for a long-term investment. Pat chose American Express (AXP) (down 17% since the attacks) even though the attacks will hurt it in the near term. It is well positioned to weather the storm, and is very attractively valued. Gary B. liked Pat's pick as well. He said the stock is near 1998 levels, which makes it a low-risk situation.
Predictions
Royce: Domestic tourism recovers; casinos benefit
Pat: Argosy Casinos (AGY) best set up to do well
Gary B: Dow 11,000 by spring of next year
Tobin: Some stocks gain on new DC real estate demand
Scott: Companies move to NJ; helps Mack-Cali Realty (CLI)
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