M. Wolfe Likely Quotations

From an economic and a market point of view, this was never likely to be a real kind of environment-changer - and hasn't been.

If the company said it was a one-quarter event, then I think the downside would have been limited. But given the guidance we received, which is that growth is likely to slow because the company is so large, that will ratchet down the numbers for fiscal 2001, and that's probably where the damage is going to come from.

If the Fed continues to tighten more than we expect, the (more) likely it is that the Bank of Canada would also be tightening more than we expect.

Rising energy prices and interest rates may overshadow the optimism employees have in the labor market in the coming months. While we don't expect worker confidence to fall dramatically, we are likely to see a softening as people struggle with greater day-to-day financial strain.

We continue to believe that the President is under some pressure to not appear anti-labor, and thus will probably not intervene until some time next week at the earliest. But despite his recent popularity with the Teamsters and the AFL-CIO, Bush will, in our view, most likely choose to protect the economy, which appears to increasingly be at risk the longer the port disruption continues.

We continue to believe that the president is under some pressure not to appear anti-labor, and thus will probably not intervene until sometime next week at the earliest, ... But despite his recent popularity with the Teamsters and the AFL-CIO, Bush will, in our view, most likely choose to protect the economy, which increasingly appears to be at risk the longer the port disruption continues.

We have noted in the past that our third-quarter earnings per share estimate of 47 cents (versus First Call consensus of 57 cents) would probably be too low if UPS settled early and a second round of freight diversion did not occur, ... As a result of last night's announcement, we will likely be raising our third-quarter EPS estimate in the next few days, once we get better visibility about some details of the contract.

At the end of his Macworld keynote address in January, Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, noted that the company will celebrate its 30th birthday on April 1, 2006. While it's possible that Jobs' was simply pointing out the longevity of Apple, we interpret it as a signal that Apple will hold a major birthday party in the form of new product event around that date, most likely in early April.

The odds weren't real likely that he would even receive a donor in time. It was just heartbreaking.