It was a mildly disappointing quarter. Operating earnings missed the analysts' target and the property and casualty side was worse than I thought.

I'm "very disappointed that we missed our (earnings per share) growth target this quarter due to the confluence of a number of issues that we now understand and are urgently addressing. I accept full responsibility for the shortfall.

It appears that operating earnings per share rose 6 percent to 7 percent in the second quarter, following a similar performance in the first.

While we were on target to meet prior consensus for third-quarter earnings, the terrorist attacks obviously had a significant impact on the overall economy and we saw clear evidence of that as consumer spending, business travel and investment activity slowed after Sept. 11,

I tried walking into a Target , but I missed.

It's going to have to be the third-quarter earnings to save the market.