With higher gasoline prices putting a dent in consumer spending and underlying inflation looking to be contained, further interest rate hikes seem unnecessary.

The sooner U.S. investors can see the end of this current interest rate cycle the better.

Anything higher here could confirm investors' fears that the Fed's interest rate tightening is far from over and is set to continue well into 2006.

It isn't a market that has matured, but there is more interest. Given where inflation has been - I've seen it up 10 to 12 percent - this is a market that should do much better.

The fundamentals are still there. We have low inflation, low interest rates and a worldwide demand for American products I don't think you have a problem as far as the market going up.

The market is responding very directly to interest rates as kind of a one-dimensional thing -- fearful of inflation and I think that either higher rates may catch this market in 1997, or the flip side, lower earnings.