The markets are still struggling and consumers are saving more, causing concern that a recovery will be slow. Art Cashin, floor director at UBS, weighed in Friday with his thoughts.
"I still think the market is showing some signs of stalling, or perhaps a topping out process," said Cashin. "I'm kind of looking at the [markets] going flat."
"We do have a lot of things back to pre-Lehman numbers," Cashin said. "That's been the bulk of this rally that's come around. Commodities are up, oil is up."
As for Federal Reserve ChairmanBen Bernanke's testimony to Congress Thursday on the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch deal, Cashin said, "The attitude of the congressman playing to the cameras didn't do much to reinforce people's faith, but they did see that he handled everything so I think that did encourage them [markets] slightly."
And here's Cashin on former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's comments in a newspaper article he wrote Friday, that inflation poses a major threat to the economy:
"It's obviously out there [hyper-inflation] it's not a nearby problem," said Cashin. "But this is that delicate balance of taking away the punch bowl, removing the stimulus in the financial area and not fouling things up, and if they don't get it out fast, the mouse trap will close and we'll have hyper-inflation."
(Watch Video For Full Cashin Interview)
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Disclosures:
Disclosure information was not available for Cashin or his company.