This implies to us that UK gambling companies are probably underestimating the negative effects of a smoking ban on their businesses.

Deflationary pressures in food continue to be severe and are not projected to ease until the second quarter. Better buying and category management efforts are expected to result in some gross margin improvement.

Recent disruptions of crude oil production in Nigeria and tensions between the West and Iran over its nuclear program… have contributed to concerns about OPEC’s ability to supply the market.

The market environment continues to become increasingly competitive as the international field of participants continues to grow. The competition among bankers, financial advisers, attorneys, private equity firms and other participants has been equally impressive.

The red-hot housing sector … which typically represents just 5 percent of the total economy, accounted for an astounding 50 percent of the overall growth in the U.S. economy by the first half of this...

This is in line with the market consensus, but we think there will be a surprise that the guidance is not disappointing in the light of France Telecom and previous experiences with KPN.

We continue to forecast a 35-40 percent decline in 2001 semiconductor capital spending.

We believe the recent turmoil at AOL is probably helping Yahoo!’s online advertising business on the margin.

Questions remain about the sustainability of the turnaround at Fiat Auto and profitability of underlying business, in the absence of further exception items (like assets sales and the GM one off gain).

We believe money flows will favor Microsoft in sector recovery, as other large caps struggle.

Overall, the results were poor and the outlook highlights that JLT has not turned the corner yet. Consensus estimates are likely to come down by 10 to 15 per cent.

In our view, the risk of negative ruling was largely factored into market expectations with the timing of a generic launch being the main issue.

Instead, if the hurricane contributes to even higher gas prices, the effect is likely to be broad-based, as consumers look to trim spending further. We do not anticipate a wholesale retrenchment, but we could see...

These earnings growth rates may prove to be too robust and may cause the market problems later on in the year. Keep a close watch.

PSA will replace nearly one third of its model line-up in 2006, which should drive more rapid volume growth in 2006 than the pedestrian level reached in 2005.

In the case of flat steel, we did not include in our models any domestic price increases, but a 5% increase was already confirmed for the second quarter, and an additional 5% price increase could...

The combination of the two rulings re-affirms our view that the majority of challenges to composition of matter patents are speculative and unlikely to be successful.

Stephanie Villalba lost her sex discrimination case. She lost her claim for costs. She has now lost her appeal on points of law relating to victimization and unequal pay. It is time for both of...

This move effectively eliminates EDS’ free cash flow for ’02, by our estimates.

Lower refinery utilization is contributing to a build-up in crude oil, but reducing the oversupply in petroleum products.

Risks to oil price will continue to remain on the upside, with prices unlikely to fall materially until these factors have been resolved.

Although the bookies were due a run of better form … we remain concerned about the underlying structural issues at work within the industry.

With sustainable high-teens earnings-per-share growth, no matter what the cycle, we think a market multiple significantly undervalues this excellent retailer.

BNP Paribas has continued the trend of European banks beating at revenue level, but experiencing significant cost growth.

We are pleased that the Supreme Court ruled in our favor. The fact that the court was unanimous confirms what we said from the start: this case had no merit.

We get the sense that this was really a personal decision made by Mr. Nelson and that he was not pushed out by the company.

We believe Asia Global Crossing is well positioned to become the first truly pan-Asian network services provider.

Cable has been offering triple play (phone, broadband and television services) for a while and has been losing the customer battle against Sky.

Ironically, it does not appear to be from the commodity corner as many believe, but instead from the labor-related costs.

Compass has issued, for the first time in a while, a trading statement that does not include a profit warning. Trading and management’s initiatives appear to be running to schedule.

We can see a relief rally lifting the stock for a day or two.

Congressional pressure is one of the factors underlying the Bush administration’s leverage on China to allow [foreign exchange] flexibility.

The Fed is no longer on auto-pilot, and further hikes beyond next week should be a function of the incoming economic data.

Every major player in the [electrical appliances retailing] sector will have similar expansion plans. So land grab will be the dominant theme in the short term.

We remain cognizant of the fact that in an industry which is currently operating at full capacity to meet demand, any significant curtailment of production would be difficult to make up.

There is no obvious single deal.

Our marketing plans do not call for us to refer to the university in any way nor do we have any intention of using the reputation of the university to promote the brand.

Though financial stocks rebounded Friday following a punishing several days, we think investors should remain exceedingly cautious and should not yet aggressively build positions unless they are geared for the long term.

Risk of brain-drain and lost business dissipates now that leadership and succession issues are resolved.

One of the factors contributing to retail margin pressures in January was a shift in advertising to later in the year, in support of Target’s evolution to more a department store and gift destination.

On the face of it, this sounds like a positive piece of news for Cairn, however, we think ONGC are most likely to look to a acquire an additional stake in Cairns 70 per cent...

The April IEA report supports our belief that rising inventories, moderating demand growth and Saudi Arabia’s commitment to put more oil into the market will put downward pressure on oil prices.

And we still haven’t seen the full brunt of the lagged impact of the Fed’s rate hikes.

This suggests there is a possibility that the consortium could still revise/raise its offer, in our view.

While we had not considered a private equity deal, there is no reason why, if the price were right, this should not be a legitimate option.

We expect Nokia device gross margin to stabilize resulting from the transition to lower-cost entry-level phones and a much stronger mid-range and high-end portfolio.

Our intermediate-term ‘strong buy’ rating for Intel stands — first-quarter PC inventory rebuild should temper seasonal weakness.

We caution against extrapolating too much from this figure to any individual company’s outlook. The 6.9% figure does not necessarily translate to the average payment increase a given MA plan ultimately receives.

It’s not going to be that much of a negative for the consumers. After all, they’re paying much lower prices than we’ve paid for six months… ( It ) might actually make everybody a winner...

We remain bullish on gold over the medium to long term and believe that the arguments for gold outweigh the arguments against.