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.

Some teams are going to regret [the long-term free agent] deals in a few years. The salary cap could go down next year. That would put some teams in quite a bind. We're committed to playing our young players next season.

The government itself is running exactly like the Sopranos and they sit back and they make deals. And they say okay, 'I'm going do this: France, you're getting the pipelines.'

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.

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.