Mergers are looking to help us hold our ground today. |
Most everyone has rather positive expectations for double-digit (corporate earnings) growth for the first quarter. That is already 'baked in the cake'. |
Net-net, there's probably plenty of oil in the market. OPEC left production quotas, so that's a plus for the market this morning. |
Nobody likes to fail in the fourth quarter. There are going to be companies that did well in the holiday season and they will be able to add to gains. |
Obviously the Iranian thing is a wild card and nothing's going to get resolved in the short term, but the earnings are really what's key to the market and any longer-term perspective. |
Overall, I think what it shows is the fourth quarter, despite good profit numbers, in terms of overall economic growth was not a very strong finish to the year. |
Post 'quadruple-witching', it would not be unexpected to see the market settle down a bit. |
Tech might get a little direction from how people trade Cisco today. |
The 10-year has been trying to anticipate the fed funds rate. As soon as (Fed policy-makers) made it clear that they weren't going to stop at 4.75 percent, there was a big jump. |
The bulls had a real opportunity. Earnings continue to roll in, and for the most part they are in-line or better than expected. |
The bulls have some work to do today. |
The futures are off to a slightly lower start after the [Group of Seven industrial nations] made a firmer call for China to accelerate the exchange rate of the yuan. The dollar got hit in response. |
The good jobs report bought the bulls a reprieve, and now it is up to earnings to carry the torch. We're still heading right into the seasonally weak February and March months in a bearish midterm election year with rates rising and oil prices rallying. Januaries tend to start strong, but it is how they finish that matters. |
The headline number probably isn't as important as the wages and average hours worked. Earnings are still the main driving force, and the jobs number is just a hurdle in our path. |
The market had been ignoring the recent run in crude, brushing it off as temporary emotional buying as a hedge against economic sanctions against Iran. Whatever the reason, oil is back up against all-time highs, and that was making the markets nervous. |