The economic data points to the Fed stopping (rate hikes) sooner rather than later, and that's encouraging. Combined with the fact that you haven't had a lot of negative pre-announcements on first-quarter earnings, this is a decent environment for equities.

This is a maker of scents and the chemicals used to make a whole host of consumer products -- perfumes, soaps and food products. I like companies where their customers that are actually generating the demand, ... It has very high returns on capital, a good business and a reasonable valuation.

The economic data points to the Fed stopping (rate hikes) sooner rather than later, and that's encouraging.

On the whole, economic data was pretty reasonable and the market is responding as you might expect.

You're looking at a mid-teens grower and you can get it at potentially 13 times earnings. So, it's a good sector, one that we like, ... It's a more stable discretionary item, but an attractive valuation and good growth prospects.

We are making another run at $70 a barrel, and we are doing it without a hurricane having knocked out 70 percent of U.S. production. You couple that with the stark reminder of all the geopolitical jitters out there, and you wind up with investors wanting to get a little more defensive.