Posts Tagged ‘earnings season’

(Lee Siler) - Stocks are set to open higher, as earnings season kicks in to high gear. Later this week we'll see just how well many of our country's biggest companies have been performing. Over the next few days GE, Intel, JNJ, JP Morgan, Google and IBM just to name a few, will surely move the markets one way or the other with their reports. Last quarter the number of stocks on the S&P 500 beating earnings estimates was at record highs due to a pessimistic Wall Street. Although there is still a degree of pessimism with regards to profits, it is certainly better than last quarter.

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(Lee Siler) - Investors look for earnings to try and make it three up days in a row. Today is the official start of earnings season, as Alcoa (AA) will report after the close. Alcoa traded modestly higher yesterday, as this Dow component performed better than the index.

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(Lee Siler) - Stocks dropped four straight sessions last week to end down around 2% among the major averages. Considering we've rallied for seven consecutive months, this two week pullback may look less ominous than it is. It's ironic that this pullback started just before we start 3rd quarter earnings season.

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(Lee Siler) - So far earnings season has started out with a bang. Alcoa got things started by beating estimates last week. Then this morning all eyes were on Goldman Sachs, which their results knocked the cover off the ball. The company reported a 33% rise in quarterly profits on very strong trading results. Certainly a good second quarter for the stock market helped buoy their report. Remember, last month Goldman paid back the TARP money they borrowed and is now the last investment bank standing. Earnings came in at $4.93 a share versus First Call estimates of $3.54 a share. This earnings report was no surprise to Wall Street, as the stock traded up over $8 a share yesterday in anticipation of a blow out number.

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(Lee Siler) - Yesterday's feeble attempt at a rally was simply an oversold bounce. I think the path of least resistance is to the downside. What's more, this week is the start of earnings season, which could potentially add more pressure to stocks.

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(Lee Siler) - As we get ready to end the best performing quarter since 1998, investors look forward to the start of earnings season. The S&P 500 soared more than 16% since the start of the 2nd quarter. This was the best showing since a 21% jump we saw in the 4th quarter of 1998. However, year-to-date it's a much different story. The disastrous start to the trading year has barely put the S&P 500 in the black. As of yesterday, the S&P was up 2.6%, much better than the Dow Jones, but much less than the Nasdaq. Clearly the tech sector led us from the depths of hell on March 8th.

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(Lee Siler) - Although the markets had a decent week, as the major averages rose around 1.5%, I continue to get the feeling that stocks are getting tired. The volume of the past few weeks have be declining, despite a rise in stocks. This is usually the first sign a correction is near. However, I do think the correction will be fairly mild, probably 3-5%. But, a retracement is a necessary evil. Markets cannot continue to rise while the volume shrinks.

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