Tuesday, October 11, 2011

3rd quarter earnings season kicks off today

     Earnings season is upon us!!  First up on the docket today is Alcoa(AA) after the bell.  Alcoa is an aluminum company that is somewhat of a bellweather for the global economy.  Alcoa's aluminum goes into the production of cars, trucks and airplanes so it will be intredasting to see what they have to say about these industries and the global economy in general.

     Other earnings this week will be PepsiCo, Mattel and JP Morgan.  JP Morgan will be an important one later in the week because we will get to see the state of the financial industry.  Expectations have been really lowered for bank profits because of this volatile market environment.  JP Morgan's stock has lost almost 30% of its value this year.

     This earnings season will be especially interesting to monitor because they can confirm or deny a global economic slowdown and a US recession.  Companies not only report 3rd quarter earnings but also give their outlook for the future which will be much more important with so much uncertainty around.  With the market having rallied over 100 SNP points in the past week or so, I believe we will need to see some good earnings from companies to sustain the rally.



Market Recap
     Well, the first earnings of the season was a dud.  Alcoa reported disappointing earnings and their stock is down 5% in after hours trading right now.  The news was not all bad however as the CEO said economic growth was continuing outside of Europe.

     "With the exception of Europe, we saw growth in our end markets, though at a slower rate than in the first half, as confidence in the global recovery faded," Chairman and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld said.

     Alcoa has been a serial disappointer when it comes to earnings so this shouldn't affect the markets too much tomorrow.  US stocks are trading down 75 points after Alcoa's poor result.

     Today was a choppy but quiet day in the markets.  With moves of over 100 Dow points being commonplace recently, today's action was almost dull.  The Dow finished down 17 points but the SNP and NASDAQ were up as AAPL was sharply higher today.

     Gold traded down 4 dollars and oil was nearly unchanged.

     On a side note, I just picked up a book called the Stock Trader's Almanac.  It is a real intredasting book with many good investing nuggets.  Here is one of them for example.  The best time to buy Gold is in July.  Over the past 15 years, if you had bought Gold in July and sold it in December you would have made a 15% average gain.  This book has a lot of great seasonal strategies and patterns to follow.  I'd recommend it if you have an interest in trading or the market's.  You can buy it on Amazon right now for 33% off. 

    

Disclaimer: Nothing in this blog should be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any securities! Please do your own due dilligence before buying any stocks or bonds!

20 comments:

  1. I'm pretty certain that the US is in a recession of the protests mean anything.

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  2. Let's hope it goes well, but my hopes aren't high.

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  3. My hopes are not up there at the top either, scary stuff is happening - the most worrysome for me is the Euro currency, though..

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  4. As said above my hopes aren't high. Like you say this honestly is discovery time, these third quarter revealings are going to be interesting without a doubt, let's just hope that they all go well and we're not in recession.

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  5. Recap kinda brings it down. I can forget stuff too easy.

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  6. lol @ that pic... down syndrome ftw

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. Would you mind doing a quick review on the book? If it's interesting (and entertaining) enough i could see myself buying it.

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  9. @hasidic plumber

    ok, let me get into it for a week and then i will post something.

    Basically, it is like a stock planner or diary. The chapters are separated into months and most days have some type of information on it like if it's usually a good day or bad day for the markets. At the beginning of each chapter there is a synopsis of trading data for the month.

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  10. intredasting......!!!!!

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  11. Intredasting indeed!

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  12. Great blog! You should definitely keep up the work because you’re excellent at it!
    Visit mine @ http://www.d22-zone.com

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  13. I was just about to write "Intredasting indeed", but than there are like 5 comments like that one xd

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  14. i dont have an idea whats going on but as a mexican all i can say is that the USD price is messing us really hard

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  15. I seriously have no idea whats going on in the U.S I just keep myself away and just watch.

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  16. LOL That image reminds me of Interesdasting Bolg.

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  17. Goddamnit, I'll never be able to say interesting again. Only interdasting. And it's your goddamn fault :(

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  18. very very intredasting.

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