We've got total labor compensation growing at 6 percent. . . . We've got record-setting highs in terms of household net worth, and it's still a record high if you exclude housing.

This marks the sixth 'new-era' labor contract we have forged in the last two years, and it was accomplished ahead of contract expiration without a single minute of lost production.

There is no message out there that rates are biting enough to shut anything down.

Commodity prices are rising, quite dramatically for copper, tin and steel scrap. That would not happen if there was an expectation of a slowdown.

This was not a year for macro-sector bets -- whoever bet on sectors, or indexes other than energy, got extremely frustrated. This was the year of individual stocks.

What little earnings reports we have had have been a little bit more disappointing than outperforming.