And NatWest's head of..............>

US TSYS/RESEARCH: And NatWest's head of strategy/Americas' John Briggs said on

Tsys/data reactions that Tsys seem to have a "stronger bull reaction" to weak

data, "than a bear reaction to strong data." He adds "this will be a bit of a

nebulous argument," and cited his "own sense of growing underlying concern

amidst investors about the state of the economy that has built up over the last

few weeks."

- He said "part of the reason for this growing concern is the fact that while

the data has been 'fine,' the trend in surprises has been to miss to the

downside. Whatever the reason, the reaction in the market to Tuesday's small

misses in ISM and auto sales, causing what even in this bull's view was an

outsized market reaction, shows the market's sensitivity to weaker data. I don't

think it was just positioning ahead of the (Wed) refunding announcement, I'd

argue that should have just pivoted the curve flatter, which it did, but it was

quite a bull flattener. And the rally part of that bull flattener clearly

started with the auto sales headlines."