Goldman Sachs Morning Summary

General tone of Goldman Sachs GS morning report continues to be positive. Overall, companies struck a much more positive tone relative to last year, driven by increased confidence on the strength of the economic recovery. A number of companies highlighted the desire and ability to return capital to shareholders through dividends and/or buybacks. Goldman noted a better outlook for capital market businesses Companies appeared bullish regarding the outlook for M&A and equity underwriting heading into 2011 given improvements in CEO confidence and the economy. In exchanges, companies highlighted their diversification which offsets some of the sluggish recent volume trends, better outside equities. For asset managers, the search for yield continues. The question heading into next year remains if retail investors will look to re-risk portfolios, which companies are not seeing yet. Goldman updates Texas Instruments TXN seeing upside in stock from share gains and buybacks, downgrades 3M Company MMM to neutral, updates Albemarle Corp ALB price target to $64 with a Buy, and reinforces improving outlook for General Electric GE while maintaining a Buy rating on the name.