填空题
· For each question (31-40), write one word in CAPITAL LETTERS on your Answer Sheet.
· There is an example at the beginning.
Keep an Eye on CEOs
Government policy decisions could speed or slow the pace of rehabilitation for the banks, and {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}turn, the stock market. David A. Hendler, a New York-based bank analyst at Credit-Sights, says his job has shifted from financial analysis toward Washington analysis. Essentially, his task is to figure {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}how quickly the government will permit weak banks to consolidate. When investors believe {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}know which banks will survive, they'll buy their stocks. The process is {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}critical to the stock market that Richard Bernstein, chief investment strategist at Merrill Lynch, is tracking six signposts for financial industry consolidation. Among them: the extent to which the government carves up and sells bad banks rather than buying into them to prop them {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}. Other strategists are keeping a close eye on the people who really know what's happening in the economy: business leaders. Biderman says he'll know corporations are getting confident {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}they start buying back their own shares and acquiring other com-panics. Right now they show no such bravado. Announcements of share buybacks are down 90% from a year ago, leaving that market thermometer so cold that the mercury is off the scale.
In the end, the timing of the bear's retreat {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}likely hinge on that great market imponderable: psychology. How investors feel has a lot to do with {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}they start seeing mixed signals as proof of a glass half-full. "The market stress causes the analytical part of our brains to shut down, and that makes us hyperreactive {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}bad news," says Michael A. Ervolini, CEO of Cabot Research, a consultancy catering to institutional investors. People become convinced conditions are worse than rock-bottom bad, he says. Only {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}they see that they've overacted can things improve: "We look for the market to start saying tomorrow will be brighter."