The deals have been the de-icing on the cake. The more dominant issue is the Nasdaq bounce, which we remain distrustful of, as we feel the market is being too complacent about interest rates.

I would sign up for the view that industrial, ‘old economy’ stocks could well be the next to move higher. But I don’t see a definitive move until we see some of the economic data...

After the bubble in the tech sector this spring, I expect the shares to get positively cheap before people start buying again, and we aren’t there yet. My view is that we have more downside...

After a 240-point fall on the Dow, people are expecting a bounce.

We’re going to see no enormous change in trend. Ahead of the upcoming [earnings] reporting season, the market mood is going to remain apprehensive.

Corporate earnings reports are going to be centre stage ? we’re in that phase of the year. Recent reports have been cautious and we’re going to see if that trend continues ? if it does...

It’s a market of stocks, not a stock market. A lot of [the gains] are corporate driven, which is surprising, given that all of the news isn’t good.

If Mannesmann had been tightly held by a group of local investors it would have been a different story. This shows that we’re beginning to play by more global rules.

It’s all part of the pattern we’ve seen since the New Year. We had an extraordinary end to 1999 and we started the year by blowing some of the froth off.

It would certainly increase our comfort level to have better and quicker monitoring.

Having shown that the nut can be cracked, this has set some sort of precedent.

The American numbers showed the people who had been getting nervous about interest rates may now think we may be overdone.

Markets are still trying to firm up where rates will peak in the U.S. and Europe.