More investors are taking advantage of short-term declines in stocks prices and are looking at December's upcoming payroll numbers as a bellwether for a timeline on when the Federal Reserve would begin to taper its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program, said Art Cashin, director of floor operations for UBS, to CNBC on Friday.
"They watch each little tick and people are beginning to move into some eventual tapering, and as [CNBC anchor Steve] Liesman suggested, this is going to make December's payroll very important, and then you're going to start to get a real hint of tapering," Cashin said during an interview on "Squawk on the Street."
(Read more: Watch Art Cashin: Nobody rings a bell at the top)
Cashin added that he would begin to worry when 10-year bond yields reach 2.775 percent, a number they are hovering near. He added that people were walking away from risk and momentum, which contributed to negative divergences in the equities market.
(Read more: Watch Art Cashin: Why I'm 'frustrated' with stock market)
"I think what you are seeing on the equity side is the 'buy the dippers' have come back," Cashin told CNBC. "They've gotten an opportunity and they're moving up."
—By CNBC's Jeff Morganteen. Follow him on Twitter at @jmorganteen and get the latest stories from "Squawk on the Street."
