Friends
It was a tale of two industrial giants as Honeywell and GE faced off this morning with earnings releases. Honeywell was the clear winner and has been for quite some time now. GE on the other hand has struggled mightily over the past several years. Perhaps if outgoing CEO Jeff Immelt would have spent more time on his company and less time on politics, GE wouldn’t be struggling as much as it is. His move to make the company more energy weighted a few years ago was a stroke of genius too. Anyway…
As for the markets, stocks spent the day in negative territory but without much conviction. By the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 31 points to finish the day at 21,580. The S&P 500 was down less than a point to close at 2,472. Gold was up $9 to trade at $1,255 per ounce, while oil was down $1.26 to trade at $45.66 per barrel WTI.
Despite GE and a few other disappointers, earnings season is going well – perhaps not as well as last quarter, but well nonetheless. The next couple of weeks will be filled with earnings releases and believe it or not we have another FOMC meeting next week (no one is paying much attention as staying put with rates this time is a foregone conclusion). Next Friday we will get our first look at 2nd quarter GDP. I say first look because, as you already know, they revise the number a few times on later dates. So, we have a lot of things to look forward to next week. Stay tuned.
Have a great weekend everyone.
