Good morning. Earnings, oil prices, and Bernanke are front and center and investors aren't very happy with what they're hearing. Premarket futures have been under pressure throughout the morning and are clearly pointing to a
challenging day ahead for the bulls.
Earnings reports out this morning offer a mixed outlook with a number of earnings surprises on the downside (ERIC, WFC, KEY, STLY, JEF, DNA) as well as upside (JNJ, USB, STT, FRX, PII). Crude oil prices are up again and have been up +9% over the past week. Also Bernanke predicted that the housing-market slump will be a "significant drag" on growth into 2008, intensifying concern the earnings outlook is at risk.
Premarket gainers: LULU, QMAR, CPSL, FREE, ESEA,TBSI, MERX, BHIP, OKN, EGLE, CLNE,DISH,NOV, PDLI, JRJC,DRYS, BSC,EXM,CHL,CPRT, IMMU, ICOC, and RICK.
Premarket losers: ERIC, VCLK, EXEL, IXYS, CTEL, TRAK, TSTC, OMPI, FRPT, SEED, TLAB, CSUN, VOLV, ACGY, SDTH,CRNT,RIMM, FSLR, TATTF, QGEN,TASR,AMZN,GRMN, ALTR,SIGM, JBLU, JNPR, XFML, BIIB,CMED,WYNN, AAUK, CKSW, GLAD, andORCL.
With reports from INTC, YHOO, and IBM after the closing bell, the official start to earnings season will be behind us. Investors love tech and they're likely to give the market the benefit of the doubt as long as that sector continues to show leadership. For the market to roll over now, we'll have to see that group fail to attract buyers so tonight's reports are indeed a big deal and will hopefully provide us a clue to how the market will react to earnings this season.
Have a terrific Tuesday!
