What Wall Street wants to hear now

TEXT OF STORY

Steve Chiotakis: Today’s the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, when the financial crisis really got started. And later today, President Obama will speak on Wall Street about what his administration has done to solve the crisis so far and what else needs to be done. But as Marketplace’s Alisa Roth reports, what does Wall Street want to hear?

Alisa Roth: The president plans to talk about what his administration’s done so far to fix the economy and his commitment to getting out of the financial sector.

It’s that first talking point Jim Paulson’s most excited about. He’s chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management:

Jim Paulson: I’d just as soon have him focus more on the improvement side of things than on how much work we have left to do or on the many hurdles we still have to overcome.

But others think Wall Street needs more than a pat on the back.

Steve Wood’s chief market strategist at Russell Investments, and he says the market’s looking for some sense of where things are going.

Steve Wood: The most critical element Wall Street will be looking for is consistency, dependability, so that we can get, you know, expectations and forecasting back into the investment process.

The president will also talk about what the U.S. and the rest of the world have to do to prevent another crisis. Wood says that’ll be key because if we’ve learned anything, it’s that this is truly a global economy.

In New York, I’m Alisa Roth for Marketplace.