Friends
If you had a chance to watch the State of the Union address last night, you might have come away with the same impression that I did. We have a lot of work to do. Politics over the next couple quarters is likely to get even uglier, so buckle up. In the meantime, we will get the Fed announcement late this morning and Dr. Bernanke’s press conference early in the afternoon. There will be no change in interest rates, but market participants will be looking for clues as to the possibility of more quantitative easing. We will also be watching to see if there is any change to the wording on how long rates will remain this low. Stay tuned.
As for the market, stocks were off just a bit yesterday with the Dow suffering modest losses, but earnings are the story on the domestic front. Among the mixed reports, we got an unbelievable blowout by Apple after the close yesterday. They reported sales of over $46 billion and earnings just shy of $14 per share, just crushing analyst estimates. They sold 37 million iphones in the 4th quarter and 15 million ipads. Just unreal!
In the meantime stocks look to open mixed this morning with the Nasdaq, led by Apple, up and the rest of the market down a bit. We’ll keep an eye on the Fed today and let you know what transpires, and as always keep an eye on Greece and the rest of the Eurozone.
