I think the soft-goods rotation is more of a statement about the dollar than anything else -- we hit seven-week lows yesterday on our currency. That could be the answer to the conundrum about how we could be in "recovery" mode and yet still have the rally by the likes of Coke (KO), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK) and Pfizer (PFE).

Coke works basket-wise, although I expect it to run into a lot of resistance at the strike price.

I think the soft-goods rotation is more of a statement about the dollar than anything else -- we hit seven-week lows yesterday on our currency. That could be the answer to the conundrum about how we could be in "recovery" mode and yet still have the rally by the likes of Coke (KO), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK) and Pfizer (PFE).

I think the soft-goods rotation is more of a statement about the dollar than anything else -- we hit seven-week lows yesterday on our currency. That could be the answer to the conundrum about how we could be in "recovery" mode and yet still have the rally by the likes of Coke (KO), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK) and Pfizer (PFE).

I wish they would reach for Lilly (LLY), which makes more sense from a growth perspective, but it is J&J that's the fave.

They also reach for Colgate (CL), although here you really should be thinking about a euro vs. dollar trade, and Colgate is a Latin America vs. dollar trade

The weak-dollar players also used to reach for Schering-Plough (SGP), which was the most overseas-dominated, but now you have to play that with Merck, and I am only so-so on Merck's plans.

Nevertheless, a combined MRK-SGP is better than a combined Pfizer-Wyeth (WYE) in my opinion, so I would go with it.