What happening when I type a single quote on the command line

[Eric Dunbar]

As per the subject, what is happening when I type a single quote
followed by enter? I typed a few things, started playing with
control-letter combos and typed control-d to get the unexpected EOF
error.

I get the following:

[root at localhost logs]# '
> 
> 
> hello
> asdlfkj
> 
> 
> 
> -bash: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `''
-bash: syntax error: unexpected end of file

Curiosity killed the cat.

Eric.