CNBC Stock Blog
- 10 Dividend Picks For Your Portfolio: Chief Investors
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- 4 Food Stocks to Stuff in Your Portfolio: Analyst
- S&P at 1050-1200 Trading Range Next Year: Strategist
- Art Cashin: Caution 'Growing' in Financials, Dividend Moves
- 3 Software Stock Picks from Lazard's Senior Analyst
- Investors Bet on a New Year's Rally For eBay
- Why You Should Play the Reflation Trade: Stock Picker
MOST SHARED
- No Thanksgiving Rest for Retailers in Sales Race
- Finding the Holiday's Best Buys
- Banks Play Down Dubai Exposure, Investors Still Wary
- More Asia Executives Resigned to Economy Flights: Survey
- UK's Darling to Downgrade 2009 Growth Forecast
- Attraction of Switzerland to Businesses
- San Miguel Sells $1.36 Billion Stake to Ally
- Farrell: What's Different On This Black Friday
- 10 Dividend Picks For Your Portfolio: Chief Investors
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- US Markets Bracing for Selloff on Dubai Debt Worries
- Dubai's Debt Woes Signal New Era for Creditors
- US Dollar Rises Against Most Currencies—Except Yen
- Shoppers Hit Black Friday Sales, Budgets Pared
- Fantasy Christmas Gifts 2009
- Car Insurance Scofflaws Raise Health Reform Doubt
- ING Prices Share Issue at Hefty Discount
- Cheap Robotic Hamsters Are Holiday's Unlikely Craze
- EU Names New Leadership Team to Boost Economy
RSS FEED
Text Size 
CNBC News Associate
Stocks gained on Thursday as a strong reading on productivity and an easing in jobless claims helped cheer investors. Steve Grasso, director of institutional sales at Stuart Frankel and CNBC market analyst, and Alan Valdes, vice president at Kabrik Trading, shared their market insights.
“The news is getting better and better,” Valdes told CNBC.
“People keep trying to talk the market down and it’s not working, and the market is going to continue [rising] until the end of the year.”
With the federal funds interest rate at zero to 0.25 percent, Valdes said more investors are going to put their money into equities instead of banks or Treasurys, which will help boost markets further.
“The market is definitely trending up,” he said. “People feel better and even if that [unemployment] number comes at 9.9 percent tomorrow, that still means that 90 percent of the country is still working…and they’re spending, as we see it.”
In the meantime, Grasso said although the stock market will finish the year higher, it's due for a pullback in the short term.
“The reason why the market has run is that we’re so preoccupied with the dollar moves and the Fed’s language yesterday, which added the boost to the market,” he said.
“I’ve been bullish—I do think we’re going to finish the year above 1,100 [on the S&P], but we’re a little toppy today on a day-to-day basis.”
Grasso said technology and materials are the “hottest sectors” at the moment.
______________________________
More Market Points of View:
- Art Cashin: Fed 'Doesn't Believe' the Recovery Yet
- Cramer: The 8 Stocks That Control the Market
- Market Outlook, Stock Picks: BlackRock's Bob Doll
______________________________
CNBC Data Pages:
______________________________
CNBC Slideshows:
______________________________
______________________________
Top Technology Companies:
Microsoft [MSFT
Loading...
()
]
Apple [AAPL
Loading...
()
]
Cisco [CSCO
Loading...
()
]
Google [GOOG
Loading...
()
]
Intel [INTC
Loading...
()
]
______________________________
Disclosures:
No immediate information was available for Grasso or Valdes.
______________________________
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes