David Blitzer
David Blitzer
hit knew last late low number oil time
This was one time hit from oil prices. We knew oil had to go up from an unsustainably low number late last year.
hit knew last late low number oil time
This was one time hit from oil prices, ... We knew oil had to go up from an unsustainably low number late last year.
absolutely asian early economy hit impact late spring
The economy right now is absolutely fantastic, but I think the Asian impact is still to come. The big hit is probably to come in late spring or early summer.
accounting companies company consistent earnings figure number rules tells together
Increasingly, companies would pretty much write their own accounting rules when they put together their earnings releases. We said to ourselves, let's figure out how to do this the right way so the earnings number really tells us something about what's going on and the number is consistent from company to company.
bet next repeated
The bet is that this will not be repeated next month.
impact numbers seen suggest
These numbers suggest there is no impact to be seen from all the difficulties in Asia.
consumers demand extremely imports increase large oil played points prices role strong
Imports are extremely strong because there's a lot of demand from consumers for goods. The increase in oil prices played a large role in that but, it still points to an extremely strong economy.
add difficult pressure pricing profit raise together
There's not a lot of pricing flexibility, there is a little more upward pressure on wages, and when you add that all together it can be very difficult to raise profit margins.
points
there's nothing here that really points to any near-term inflationary dangers.
cap change expect expenses funds large less lower operating reflection segment tracking
This change makes the S&P 500 a better reflection of the large cap segment of the U.S. equities market. Index funds and exchange-traded funds can expect lower operating and transaction expenses and less tracking error.
continues focus investing investment
This investment continues our focus of investing in high-quality, stable, cash-generative businesses.
beginning far horrendous
As horrendous as it looks, I'm beginning to feel we're not that far from a bottom.
alan
As long as Alan Greenspan's not frowning, I'm not too worried.
change due impact investors low mergers number time unusually year
This is a year of unusually low S&P index turnover due to the low number of mergers and acquisitions in the large-cap sector. So we are making the change at a time when the impact on index investors will be minimized.