Certainly, stock markets have suffered a serious correction. And what's clear is that the trend toward larger firms and a globalized economy is irreversible. Merrill's economists believe that despite the recent downturn, that technology will remain a primary driver of economic growth, and will continue to deliver superior returns. They see long term trends in data storage demand, distributed computing and open source software as something to keep an eye on over the next couple of quarters. At Merrill, we are confident that despite the appearance that global economic conditions are stuck, things are beginning to improve.
Consumer confidence is solid, with retail sales high and unemployment rates low.
Central banks are cutting interest rates based on the lead set by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Our economists predict that the economy will remain a bit sluggish through the first half of the year, and will stage a rebound in the second half. More and more, Canadians will look abroad for investment opportunities. By the same measure foreign investors are pouring more money into the Canadian financial services industry. In short we Canadians have more of our investment dollars outside Canada, and foreigners have more of their investment dollars inside this country.