Good morning. Premarket futures are higher this morning following good news from International Business Machines (
IBM) who told the market really want they wanted to hear this morning- i.e. strong profits from Asia, Europe and emerging countries led to the better than expected results. In response, buyers are bidding up tech and hoping that more unexpected good news is coming as earnings season gets fully underway.
While not all earnings news was great (see Sears (SHLD)), some positive analyst commentary, rumors of more writedowns in the financial space & subsequent takeovers, and higher commodities (oil & gold) are in focus as well. Overseas markets are mixed.
Premarket gainers: ASVI, DROOY, TITN, NOEC, SEED, COIN, ADCT, INTC, VCLK, FCSX, CGEN, ANX, ASML, ERIC, SIGM, NILE, AKNS, SOLF, ACGY, HOKU, CSIQ, YGE, IBM, RFMD, MPEL, NOK, INTC, DELL, AUY, CSUN, IQW, CSCO, ALTR, WCG, SDTH, MICC, ETFC, SNDK, MSFT, and AAPL.
Premarket losers: SHLD, CPWR, SGEN, ESRX, NFI, HAR, SNS, TTI, and OPXT.
With no major data reports on the calendar today, the market will be preparing for the rest of the week. There's a ton of economic data ahead with another Bernanke speech on Thursday. For what it is worth, Fed Fed futures now fully discount a 50 basis point cut in two weeks while 40% see a 75 basis point cut.
Earnings hold the key between now and the end of the month. We need many more reports like IBM to restore confidence and to repair the damage we've seen over the past couple of weeks. Have a great Monday!
