Friends
Earnings season claimed another victim today as shares of IBM, “big blue”, led the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower. After a less than stellar report IBM single handedly had the Dow trading in negative territory from the open and the market averages weakened throughout the trading session. Despite the release of the beige book report this afternoon, which showed growth in all twelve Fed districts, plummeting oil prices help set the negative tone to the trading session.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 118 points to finish the day at 20,404. The S&P 500 was down 4 points to close at 2,338. Gold was down $12 to trade at $1,281 per ounce, while the aforementioned oil was down $2 to trade at $50.41 per barrel WTI.
It’s early in the earnings season, but it has become evident that if your share price has been elevated, you better deliver a better than expected earnings reports. “As expected” is turning out not to be good enough given the levels that stocks were at as we entered this earnings season. Still, to this point earnings have been mostly positive. It’s the share price reactions that have been problematic.
Have a nice evening everyone.
