The U.S. origination business may be slowing while it is growing in other markets.

As this problem is unlikely to resolve itself quickly, we remain concerned that 2006 forecasts could be too aggressive.

The miss appears to be weakness in the trading portion of the Investment Bank unit, a frequent culprit due to its excessive volatility versus peers.

They really have built a very impressive investment-banking capability. They won't always be No.1, but they clearly have been effective in merging their investment and commercial banks.

Warburg has been taken by surprise by the strength of Morgan Stanley, Merrill and Goldman in M&A underwriting in Europe.

Merrill, relative to its historical valuations at this stage of the cycle, is quite cheap. And (the company) will of course enjoy some recovery probably over the next few weeks as it has in the last week, as worries about the interest rate environment subside.