Real Story: Earnings, M&A and Housing Drama

At the onset of first-quarter earnings season, the market is technically strong, John Bollinger of Bollinger Capital Management tells Aaron Task on Tuesday's The Real Story podcast.

"The market looks pretty good in terms of its basic structure -- major averages are approaching new highs -- and we have strong technical support," Bollinger says.

The underlying story is there has been a "long string of better-than-expected economic reports, which creates a positive psychological tone," according to the veteran technician. "People have consistently underestimated the stock market and the economy, [and so] a rapid-fire decline meets support, because [the decline] is met by better-than-expected news."

In terms of sectors, "energy is looking very constructive," heading into earnings season, Bollinger says. "We expect the same for energy as for most [sectors]: on balance, earnings will be better than expected and contribute to a rally to solidify new highs" for major averages.

That said, technology is "more problematic," and the Nasdaq Composite is in the "least good shape" of the major averages, he says on a day in which Seagate Technology (STX Quote) became the latest tech leader to warn of weaker-than-expected results.

Other stocks in the "Geoff Tate Zone" Tuesday included Marathon Oil (MRO Quote) and Jackson Hewitt (JTX Quote).

Task's second guest, TheStreet.com real estate reporter Nick Yulico, discusses the dismal results from DR Horton (DHI Quote), which reported that fiscal second-quarter new-home orders fell 37% from a year ago.