Mr. McNulty: Right now we're focused pretty broadly on the group, and largely because the names are seeing some pretty positive trends with regard to fundamentals, both on the volume and pricing side, as well as an outlook for some relief on the raw material front. When you put all that together with some valuations that are looking pretty low in terms of multiples, we think that the space in general is very attractive.
TWST: You just mentioned the potential for some relief on the raw materials front. Tell us about that.
Mr. McNulty: Yes, right now there are a couple of different issues going on. You had a run in energy prices, and that put some pressure on, with regard to higher raw materials. We're starting to see that subside, with $75 oil instead of $85. That's certainly helping, and low natural gas is helping as well. Additionally, you've had some capacity taken out of the industry for a while, both either intentional capacity reductions or in some cases more maintenance-related. And you're starting to see at least the maintenance-related outages coming back on, so that certainly gives us some hope that you're going to see a slight loosening of the supply-demand balance for certain raw materials. The last thing, and this is more specific, is with regard to ethylene. You're seeing some incremental capacity coming on from the Middle East, and that should also help to put some pressure on some of the raw materials that some of the specialty companies are exposed to.
Tickers included in this excerpt: APD, ARG, ASH, BA, CE, CYT, DOW, EAD.PA, FMC, HXL, ROC
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