Investors are going to take microscopes to these numbers, try to get behind them and try to pre-guess what the Fed is likely to do.

Investors are entitled to both accurate financial data and an accurate description of the story behind the numbers.

Investors are unable to get a clear view on 2006 because there's so much noise in the numbers. There's the competitive environment in Spain, there's the impact from Kraft activities and there were currency swings. It doesn't in any way impact the progress made on the domestic product.

We're a little behind schedule (in pre-registration), but then again the weather was all over the map. People were just trying to figure out whether it was outdoor or indoor weather. We usually like to be somewhere around 400 to 500 the day of the race. I don't know if we'll be there but that's where we'd like to be.

Little did he know what was going on behind the scenes.

The numbers weren't that big a surprise. It's just that investors are very cautious about high-techs at the moment and sensitive to anything that sounds negative.