Market Poll: Investors Remain Optimistic
DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: Over the weekend, more than 7,000 people responding to a poll on our CNNfn.com Web site about the markets at the start of the fourth quarter, and some of the results are a bit surprising. Here now to fill us in is Susan Lisovicz.</s>SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Deborah.</s>MARCHINI: Hi. What did we learn?</s>LISOVICZ: Well, I'll tell you, one of the most startling things for me was the optimism of the people who did respond because, you know, all three major indices are down year-to-date. In fact, the Nasdaq's down nearly 10 percent. The S&P; and the Dow also down. The Dow's down 7 1/2 percent. And the first question was: How will the markets end the year? And nearly two-thirds of the respondents -- look at it there -- 34 percent said a single digit gain; 32 percent said a double-digit gain. So they're clearly expecting a big fourth quarter. Eighteen percent said flat, 16 percent said down. Another interesting area is what will have the biggest impact on the markets. Now, I know that you've been talking a lot, we've been talking a lot about oil prices, the surge in oil prices, but they were a distant second. Profits, it's all about profits. Two-thirds of the respondents said that that is what is going to determine the fourth quarter. But, you know, interestingly enough is that most of the respondents also said that they're more pessimistic about the markets since March, which is of course when we saw a lot of the correction in tech stocks.</s>MARCHINI: That puzzled me because when the people were asked if you feel better or worse about the markets than you did in March, a lot of them said they felt worse. So if they're expecting single and double-digit gains and they feel worse, heaven knows what they must have been expecting before.</s>LISOVICZ: Exactly. Well, I think the fact is, is that they have been well rewarded for their investments in the stock market. And in fact, the last question's is: What would you do if you had $10,000? And there you have it, they would still buy stocks. They have been rewarded; it's I think 10 years now, later this month, by a lot of calculation, the bull market. So bears still have a lot of faith in the market, even if they've taken some hits along the way this year.</s>MARCHINI: Yes, it's pretty remarkable. I don't know, if I had $10,000, I'm a little risk-averse, I think I might take a vacation with it.</s>LISOVICZ: I might diversify myself or take a vacation.</s>MARCHINI: Exactly. It is surprising that the elections figured as such a minor portion of this because we hear so much from the candidates about economic issues.</s>LISOVICZ: You know, the other thing is that, you know, these debates have been put off for a long time. There was debating about the debates. And so we do have three of them, the first one tomorrow, and perhaps that could put a little fire into investors about who they're going to vote for in terms of economic issues and whether that will have a bigger -- place -- more priority in terms of their voting.</s>MARCHINI: All right. Well, we'll ask Greg Valliere about that. He's going to be coming on a little while too. Susan Lisovicz, thank you.