As we all know, you can squeeze just so much out of a bottle of ketchup. At some point, the drip stops as the bottle runs dry.

Raymond James’s chief investment strategist, Jeffrey Saut, relates the same thinking to the stock market, which he believes is no great shakes at current levels. While Wall Street is resoundingly bullish, with many pros pitching every market sell off as a buying opportunity, not so Mr. Saut who is essentially telling his firm’s 5,500 brokers that a number of factors strongly suggest to him that “we’re looking at a sloppy market for the rest of 2005.” Chief among them:

* Earnings momentum is starting to wane.

* Interest rates are headed higher.

* The high price of oil (which last week topped a record $57 a barrel and is now projected by some pros to average more than $50 this year) is a headwind against a robust economic recovery.

* The economy – which Mr. Saut describes as a “fox-trot economy” – should muddle its way through the rest of the year, but it will fall short of expectations, with 2005 GDP growth of 3%-3.5%. The consensus growth expectation runs about 3.5%-4%.

* Stock valuations (notably price/earnings ratios) are fairly optimistic. The S&P 500, for example, is trading at 20 times trailing 12-month earnings, and most bear markets, observes Mr. Saut, start at 20 P/E multiples.

“It amazes me,” he said, “that the risk premium in the equities market is as low as it is, given the geopolitical consternations, including the threat of terrorism.”

Mr. Saut, by the way, isn’t one of those growling bears. He figures the market at year end will wind up marginally lower than it is now, with the Dow trading the balance of 2005 in a range of 9,000 on the low side and 11,000 on the high side. It closed Friday at 10,626.

“I’m not bearish, I’m borish,” Mr. Saut said, “and I’m investing in borish things.” He figures too many investors are wondering whether they should buy technology names like Intel and Cisco Systems. “That’s bum thinking,” he said. “They’re the wrong place to be. Cisco is not going back up to $70. These are now broken stocks. Maybe you can trade in them from time to time, but that’s it.”

Though a worrywart, Mr. Saut does see some opportunities. In particular, he’s gung-ho on what he views as boring companies, especially those in the water business. He notes, for example, that 90% of China’s rivers are polluted, and he sees similar problems in India, as well as in such emerging nations as Thailand and Malaysia. Among his top picks are Watts Water Technologies and ITT Industries, which is involved in both defense and water. Another of his boring selections is Alaska Communications Systems Group, the Alaskan telephone company, which has an 8.4% yield.

Mr. Saut doesn’t have target prices on any of these companies because of his less than ecstatic view of the market, but he expects each to run rings around the market over the next 12 months. “I don’t have a clue how high they’ll go, but if they’re up 15% to 20%, I’m out,” he tells me.

He also favors tangible-type plays, preferably with yield, notably in areas like timber; energy; base metals, such as nickel; soybeans; fertilize;, and precious metals, such as gold.

On the other hand, he would underweight the financials and technology. He figures financials are a losing bet in a rising interest rate environment.

As for technology, which he describes as overloved and overowned, he notes that “everyone is looking for lightning to strike twice in the same place. The problem, though,” he said “is it rarely happens.”

Wrapping up, Mr. Saut observes that Warren Buffett has described “The Intelligent Investor,” a book written by the late renowned value player Ben Graham, as “by far, the best book on investing ever written.” The first sentence of the very first chapter reads: “An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, provides safety of principal and adequate returns.”

Unfortunately, as Mr. Saut sees it, today’s market doesn’t meet these goals.

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Seven in a row: While there are no guarantees in life, most economists think a Fed increase in interest rates – the seventh consecutive one since June – is a near certainty at tomorrow’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, given improving labor markets, growing inflationary worries and a renewed surge in oil prices. Such a boost, it’s generally felt, would likely see the Federal Funds rate rise 25 basis points to 2.75%. However, economist J.C. Spender, professor of business strategy at the Open University Business School on the outskirts of London, tells me he wouldn’t be shocked – though the market certainly would be – if there was a 50 basis-point hike, given the catastrophic budget and trade deficits.