(By Rich Bieglmeier) Stocks wiggled their way higher on Thursday, thanks in part to a better than expected Durable Goods Orders report. We thought it would be tough for the report to top the street's outlook of a 7% gain, but a major uptick in non-defense airlines brought home a reading of 9.9%.
The good news and light shade of green for equities could be short lived as Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) blew it after the market closed with underwhelming earnings and forward guidance. It will be real difficult for the market and next to impossible for the NASDAQ to move higher if AMZN and AAPL dump today.
Maybe, Friday morning's 3rd quarter GDP report before the bell can throw the indexes a lifeline. Economists believe the economy grew by 1.9% in the third quarter. Based on ISM Manufacturing readings throughout the summer, iStock thinks the result will hug expectations.
With the weight of two monsters pushing sentiment towards a negative tone, a soft GDP reading could snap any support stocks might have. If things do turn sour, investors might be lucky to see the Dow stop at 13,000, the S&P at 1,400, and the NASDAQ at 2,950.
While Apple and Amazon struggled, most of last week's iEstimates surpassed Wall Street's consensus estimates. We highlighted Expedia (EXPE) as a tradable candidate during the week. Last night, they popped past profit forecasts and jumped 15% in after hour trading. Hopefully we can have similar success next week.
| Company | Ticker | Expected Date | EPS | iEstimate | Surprise | % Surprise |
| Lender Proc Svc | LPS | 10/28/2012 | 0.72 | $0.76 | $0.04 | 5% |
| Cno Finl Grp | CNO | 10/28/2012 | 0.19 | $0.21 | $0.02 | 9% |
| Belo Corp | BLC | 10/29/2012 | 0.22 | $0.24 | $0.02 | 10% |
| Surmodics | SRDX | 10/29/2012 | 0.17 | $0.18 | $0.01 | 6% |
| Sunoco Logistic | SXL | 10/29/2012 | 0.76 | $0.92 | $0.16 | 21% |
| Mueller Water | MWA | 10/29/2012 | 0.04 | $0.05 | $0.01 | 17% |
| Nu Skin Enterp | NUS | 10/29/2012 | 0.76 | $0.79 | $0.03 | 4% |
| Hcc Ins Hldgs | HCC | 10/29/2012 | 0.75 | $0.82 | $0.07 | 9% |
| Denny'S Corp | DENN | 10/30/2012 | 0.09 | $0.10 | $0.01 | 14% |
| Stillwater Mng | SWC | 10/30/2012 | 0.05 | $0.06 | $0.01 | 20% |
| Calumet Speclty | CLMT | 10/30/2012 | 0.6 | $0.80 | $0.20 | 33% |
| Bok Finl Corp | BOKF | 10/30/2012 | 1.22 | $1.32 | $0.10 | 9% |
| Virtus Investmt | VRTS | 10/30/2012 | 1.29 | $1.33 | $0.04 | 3% |
| Warner Chil Plc | WCRX | 10/30/2012 | 0.78 | $0.84 | $0.06 | 7% |
| Tesoro Corp | TSO | 10/30/2012 | 2.3 | $2.59 | $0.29 | 13% |
| Allstate Corp | ALL | 10/30/2012 | 1.13 | $1.33 | $0.20 | 18% |
| Haverty Furnit | HVT | 10/31/2012 | 0.12 | $0.15 | $0.03 | 22% |
| Ceva Inc | CEVA | 10/31/2012 | 0.17 | $0.18 | $0.01 | 8% |
| Parametric Tech | PMTC | 10/31/2012 | 0.48 | $0.50 | $0.02 | 4% |
| Netspend Hldgs | NTSP | 10/31/2012 | 0.14 | $0.14 | $0.00 | 3% |
| Idacorp Inc | IDA | 10/31/2012 | 1.53 | $1.60 | $0.07 | 4% |
| Exlservice Hldg | EXLS | 11/1/2012 | 0.4 | $0.42 | $0.02 | 5% |
| Western Refing | WNR | 11/1/2012 | 1.47 | $1.51 | $0.04 | 3% |
Last week's results:
| Company | Ticker | Report Date | EPS | iEstimate | Surprise | % Surprise | Actual |
| Potlatch Corp | PCH | 10/22/2012 | $0.40 | $0.47 | $0.07 | 17.50% | $0.46 |
| Suntrust Bks | STI | 10/22/2012 | $1.84 | $2.08 | $0.24 | 13.04% | $1.98 |
| Union First Mkt | UBSH | 10/22/2012 | $0.33 | $0.35 | $0.02 | 6.06% | $0.37 |
| Chemical Finl | CHFC | 10/22/2012 | $0.48 | $0.50 | $0.02 | 4.17% | $0.48 |
| Meridian Intrst | EBSB | 10/22/2012 | $0.09 | $0.11 | $0.02 | 22.22% | $0.08 |
| Illumina Inc | ILMN | 10/22/2012 | $0.39 | $0.40 | $0.01 | 2.56% | $0.41 |
| Sunoco Logistic | SXL | 10/22/2012 | $0.74 | $0.87 | $0.13 | 17.57% | 10/29/2012 |
| Ace Limited | ACE | 10/23/2012 | $1.83 | $1.91 | $0.08 | 4.37% | $2.01 |
| Assurant Inc | AIZ | 10/23/2012 | $1.38 | $1.46 | $0.08 | 5.80% | $1.55 |
| Lumber Liquidat | LL | 10/23/2012 | $0.34 | $0.38 | $0.04 | 11.76% | $0.46 |
| Everest Re Ltd | RE | 10/23/2012 | $3.74 | $4.06 | $0.32 | 8.56% | $4.05 |
| Regeneron Pharm | REGN | 10/23/2012 | $0.95 | $1.18 | $0.23 | 24.21% | $1.72 |
| Symantec Corp | SYMC | 10/23/2012 | $0.37 | $0.38 | $0.01 | 2.70% | $0.45 |
| Lithia Motors | LAD | 10/24/2012 | $0.77 | $0.83 | $0.06 | 7.79% | $0.90 |
| Enterprise Finl | EFSC | 10/24/2012 | $0.31 | $0.35 | $0.04 | 12.90% | $0.39 |
| Expedia Inc | EXPE | 10/24/2012 | $1.26 | $1.33 | $0.07 | 5.56% | $1.32 |
| Rayonier Inc | RYN | 10/24/2012 | $0.60 | $0.62 | $0.02 | 3.33% | $0.62 |
| Cabelas Inc | CAB | 10/25/2012 | $0.60 | $0.63 | $0.03 | 5.00% | $0.60 |
| Sterling Fin Wa | STSA | 10/25/2012 | $0.49 | $0.50 | $0.01 | 2.04% | $0.49 |
| Taser Intl Inc | TASR | 10/25/2012 | $0.04 | $0.05 | $0.01 | 25.00% | 10/26/2012 |
| Middleburg Finl | MBRG | 10/26/2012 | $0.25 | $0.27 | $0.02 | 8.00% | 10/26/2012 |