It's been an extraordinary start to the year for European stock markets. |
Oil is uncomfortably high; it is inflationary, ... If you are struggling a bit on the continent, as Germany is, you really do not want high input prices. |
The big surprise has been that the inevitable hit to the U.S. economy from the hurricane hasn't hit the market yet -- this market doesn't want to lie down. |
The end game is to sell out to GM, ... There are too many players trying to win customers in the mid-sized market. |
The global economy is still pretty good. U.S. unemployment down to 4.7 percent is very good. China's still looking bubbly. Unless it goes very pear-shaped on the global front, it doesn't look too bad. |
The market's gone far enough for the moment, and in comes the profit-taking. |
The markets have been so strong that the only thing that will really get them going forward is M&A activity. |
The shares had enjoyed an extraordinary debut, much better than we expected, but they are very vulnerable to any disappointment, ... The City never likes nasty surprises and this is a difficult business model to predict. |
There are genuine concerns about economic growth globally, and there's earnings pressure from a lot of places. |
There is a lot more competition. You will see more discounting. Retailers have to accept lower margins. |
There isn't a lot of forward momentum. The market ran a bit too far, too fast last year. |
There's relief (in the market), coupled with some good corporate news from GM. Certainly the U.S. durable goods data today is very important. Oil prices are steady and that helps too. |
There's renewed confidence - companies are feeling happy, they are feeling pretty good about life. They are saying we don't need this money for a rainy day: we can buy extra growth. |
This is a deal S&N had to do [to be a major European player] |
To its huge credit, GUS has moved from being a rag-tag of businesses with a reliance on a declining home shopping market to a very focused retail group. |