Cantor Fitzgerald

Marc Pado Comments: Doubts Rise After Strong July Rally

August 2, 2010, The Business Times Online

It's been a great four weeks on Wall Street. But as July gives way to August, and a new monthly employment report looms on Friday, doubts over the sustainability of Wall Street's strong bounce-back rally are on the rise.

'July was great, but I think we'll consider ourselves in good shape if stocks simply hold serve in August and finish the month where we started it,' said Cantor Fitzgerald's Marc Pado.

While stocks posted 7 per cent gains across all three of the major stock market indexes last month, and the impressive second quarter earnings season still has one more peak week of results to go, Wall Street is bracing for concerns over the slow-motion economy.

'For all the gains we have seen over the past four weeks, it's important to remember that July's results barely did better than regain the ground that stocks lost in June, and that means we haven't even begun to get back any of May's significant losses,' said David Rosenberg, chief economist and market strategist at Gluskin Sheff.

He was referring to the 5.4 per cent loss the S&P 500 suffered in June, which came on top of its May sell-off of 8.2 per cent.

The Dow Jones Industrials fared little better, losing 11 per cent from the first day of May until the first trading day of July.