Consumer Goods Sector Report

Last week at the meeting we briefly discussed TIF, there were some concerns and a few of you thought we should drop it. Well, the overwhelming analyst opinion is still buy or hold, there is only one 'reduce.' So, I still support keeping it in the portfolio. Tiffany also announces, along with Hermes, that they will be opening a location on Wall Street. There has been a recent movement to bring more residential and retail use to the area.

In Toyota news there is expected to be a management "shake up" this summer. The only notable change is that Executive Vice President Yoshi Inaba will be leaving the company to become the Chief Executive of Central Japan International Airport Co. There is a question of who will be promoted his place but Jim Press, president of Toyota North America, might be the man. In trading the stock is was up today.

Cherokee-- Last week the company signed an international licensing deal for their brand with Comercial Mexicana, a premiere Mexican retailer. The retailer said that "Cherokee is one of the only true global family lifestyle brands that cover a wide range of product categories and will add significant growth and profit to our apparel and non-foods business. It will be one of our key initiatives as we continue to grow our market share throughout Mexico." Good for them, and us because Cherokee is up (but not significantly).