There was a big disappointment that fourth quarter growth (for 2005) was below expectations.
Fund managers can at times indiscriminately pull the plug on some markets, and normally sell in baskets.
That's not a bad number. But I think the market was obviously expecting an upside surprise which never came.
There had not been much position-taking ahead of the decision, so the reaction was muted.
There is a massive amount of speculation as to what kind of corporate action is at play in the coming year.
I don't think anybody's panicking, because it can't go up in a straight line forever. It's probably a healthy blow-off of steam, and it's not surprising that it's occurring on a Friday.
We've had this significant run which has been pretty much one-way traffic for the last two weeks, so it doesn't really come as a surprise that there's a correction of some sort.
We've been in and out of positive territory a couple of times. The resilience and underlying momentum, which is very much weighted on the buy side, is still there.
