Dave's Daily: Waiting for Earnings

Dave's Daily

By Dave Fry, founder and publisher of ETF Digest and author of the best-selling book Create Your Own ETF Hedge Fund.

February 3, 2010

WAITING FOR EARNINGS

Markets spent a quiet day waiting for earnings from CSCO, NVLS, BRCM and V to name a few.  Most companies are beating estimates which continue the trend of analysts who don't seem to know what they're doing or are deliberately low-balling numbers.  It looks better when companies beat and low-balling numbers for stocks with attendant buy recommendations can be more powerful.  Eighty percent of stocks reporting thus far are beating estimates.

In the meantime, Wednesday's market action was subdued as ADP employment data was better than expected but ISM Services wasn't good.  Energy inventories were higher than expected on crude oil but lower on gasoline.  The bets were in that crude would rise based on the opposite happening but private data indicated the supply build was less than feared so crude oil did little. 

Volume was lighter than recent averages and breadth was negative on the NYSE but mixed on the NASDAQ. 

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