Quarterly Review:

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The Quarter it Wasn't!
By Jeffrey R. Hirschkorn, IPO Analyst

The first quarter was something everyone hopes they could forget about. That's not going to be easy considering that a depressed marketplace has been caused by concerns over a weakening economy. In turn, that has led to massive layoffs at some of the world's bellwether firms after many pre-warned about future reporting periods. Again, everyone, especially our newly elected President, seems to be playing the horn about how another recession is not on the horizon so he can get his $1.6 trillion tax package passed through Congress.

"We've got a market where the mood is gloom, anger, frustration and fear," said Alfred Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards & Sons in a recent interview. 'so the moment the first seller shows up everyone who was feeling slightly better dumps their stocks. There's a crisis of confidence that's typical when a market tries to find a bottom."

According to well-placed sources, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has appeared to reach a bottom while the Nasdaq Composite is still trying to regroup. There's no surprise here as to how the quarter began and ended. It started slow and ended on a rather subdued note. No different than in years past, the IPO circuit began to materialize in late-Jan.

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