I think that fears of inflation are overblown, and that when we consider energy prices have pulled back a bit, there doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence that inflation has propagated in the economy beyond energy.

There are risks that inflation could heat up at bit and therefore the risk that the Fed might have to be a bit more vigilant than the market expects is the thing that makes me the most cautious.

Inflation is down to 1.4% excluding energy, so there's absolutely no inflation pressure.

As we went into December and energy was in that hyper-inflation stage, we looked at measures to cut down the costs.

have been beating the drums about worrying about higher inflation, and so far, other than energy, we haven't had higher inflation. (But) I would say earnings are doing quite well, so I think that's helped to keep the market from having another bad week.

The Fed is keeping an eye on core inflation because they were concerned about prices spilling over from energy and commodities to the rest of the economy. This increases the odds that interest rate increases can remain measured, a quarter-point at a time.