Friends
As earnings reports keep coming, traders seem somewhat uninterested. Yes, for the most part companies are doing just fine, but top line revenue growth is once again difficult to find. Corporate managements are squeezing everything they can out of margins, but the feeling is that game is getting long in the tooth. What we are left with are healthy companies, many with rising share prices, but not much top line growth. With share prices growing faster than earnings, we are left with what we call P/E expansion. (P/E is price to earnings ratio). P/E expansion is ok, but it would be nice to have earnings keeping up with share prices. It would just make me feel better.
Anyway, stocks were mixed for the day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 22 points to close at 15,568, while the S&P 500 was down 3 points to finish the day at 1692. After yesterday’s big move, gold was up another $7 to trade at $1343 per ounce, while oil was up $.24 to trade at $107.18 per barrel WTI.
The market is waiting for the earnings results from Apple after the close today. Expectations are somewhat muted, as market participants don’t expect much from the device maker until they start bringing new products to the market. It will be interesting to see the action of the shares after the earnings are released. We will try to give you a scorecard update on earnings by the end of the week.
Have a nice evening everyone.
