On the whole, economic data was pretty reasonable and the market is responding as you might expect.

Once things get through the day-to-day digestion period, broadly speaking the market is still pretty good, ... The trend to lower energy erases some of the fears of how long consumers can hold up. It gives the market enough to fear but sets us up for gradual appreciation going into year-end.

You're looking at a mid-teens grower and you can get it at potentially 13 times earnings. So, it's a good sector, one that we like, ... It's a more stable discretionary item, but an attractive valuation and good growth prospects.

It's not just what you deliver, but what your future is likely to hold. I feel like there is a lot of one-time noise in earnings. That's going to create volatility for some stocks.

The economic data points to the Fed stopping (rate hikes) sooner rather than later, and that's encouraging. Combined with the fact that you haven't had a lot of negative pre-announcements on first-quarter earnings, this is a decent environment for equities.

We are making another run at $70 a barrel, and we are doing it without a hurricane having knocked out 70 percent of U.S. production. You couple that with the stark reminder of all the geopolitical jitters out there, and you wind up with investors wanting to get a little more defensive.

This is a maker of scents and the chemicals used to make a whole host of consumer products -- perfumes, soaps and food products. I like companies where their customers that are actually generating the demand, ... It has very high returns on capital, a good business and a reasonable valuation.