Merrill Lynch Quotations

We believe that the goodwill impairment is unsurprising given most of the other incumbent operators and wireless players have already taken these impairments for overpaying for acquisitions during the last 1990s.

We believe Yahoo! is 'priced to perfection,' and that near-flawless quarters are required to support its multiple.

From a hardware standpoint, the largest exposure outside of Sony itself is Microsoft, which could benefit if the company is able to overcome supply problems with Xbox 360.

There is an unmistakable change of tone in the survey this month.

Other suitors may appear for one or both companies. However, European power is changing rapidly and neither company can ignore the implications.

Risks to oil price will continue to remain on the upside, with prices unlikely to fall materially until these factors have been resolved.

Recent disruptions of crude oil production in Nigeria and tensions between the West and Iran over its nuclear program... have contributed to concerns about OPEC's ability to supply the market.

Our marketing plans do not call for us to refer to the university in any way nor do we have any intention of using the reputation of the university to promote the brand.

Stephanie Villalba lost her sex discrimination case. She lost her claim for costs. She has now lost her appeal on points of law relating to victimization and unequal pay. It is time for both of us to move on.

The April IEA report supports our belief that rising inventories, moderating demand growth and Saudi Arabia's commitment to put more oil into the market will put downward pressure on oil prices.

We continue to take a cautious stance on the specialty retail sector and expect group performance will be inconsistent in the near term, reflecting tough fourth-quarter comparisons and uncertainty about consumer spending.

We believe the recent turmoil at AOL is probably helping Yahoo!'s online advertising business on the margin.

While we had not considered a private equity deal, there is no reason why, if the price were right, this should not be a legitimate option.

We get the sense that this was really a personal decision made by Mr. Nelson and that he was not pushed out by the company.

We remain bullish on gold over the medium to long term and believe that the arguments for gold outweigh the arguments against.

We believe CFO Mike Lehman is one of the most conservative on the Street, and we have no reason to believe there are any accounting irregularities at the company.

We expect group's performance to continue to be volatile as concerns about a promotional and lackluster holiday season remain the near-term focus.

BNP Paribas has continued the trend of European banks beating at revenue level, but experiencing significant cost growth.

Technology, demographics and industry consolidation are driving profound changes in the private-client business.

Questions remain about the sustainability of the turnaround at Fiat Auto and profitability of underlying business, in the absence of further exception items (like assets sales and the GM one off gain).

PSA will replace nearly one third of its model line-up in 2006, which should drive more rapid volume growth in 2006 than the pedestrian level reached in 2005.

Compass' statement should be a relief to the market as trading appears to be in line with expectations.

(They are) basically doing all the right things. This is a bull's wish list.

This outcome was the likeliest coming in and already seemingly reflected in markets; both bonds and stocks may be marginally disappointed (for different reasons), but there are no major market implications, in our view.

This is in line with the market consensus, but we think there will be a surprise that the guidance is not disappointing in the light of France Telecom and previous experiences with KPN.

In our view, the risk of negative ruling was largely factored into market expectations with the timing of a generic launch being the main issue.

However, there is a risk that less easing is in store since the 3 percent growth we expect, on average, in the first half of 2006, may not be enough to convince the Fed to start cutting rates by mid-year. Thus there is a risk that the yield curve remains inverted for longer than we have built into our forecast.