“What, you don’t like the earnings season shuffle?”
The Doe Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.4% and so did the S&P 500. Both major indexes are solidly in the green for 2013.
Links Worth Snacking On:
- Chart of the Week – The world’s 5 most secure bank vaults
- WSJ – 10 things your office won’t say
- Wall Street Oasis – Hedge Funds vs. Mutual Funds (you know all the differences, right?)
- Bloomberg – Prefer the boxed stuff? Demand for cheap Chardonnay has been huge for Australian exports/economy
- The Atlantic – Explaining that $1 trillion platinum coin idea you keep hearing about (but don’t have an opinion on yet)
- Fast Company – The 2013 Apple rumors waiting to shake up the stock
- AdAge – So who’s spending the big $$ and bought Super Bowl ads already?
- NYPost – The worst signature in the history of the world – to be on every $ bill
Airplane fires. Pyramid schemes. Chicken investigations. Fun week for Wall Street or plot of a Steven Seagal action flick? The start of the 4th quarter earnings season was the focus for investors, but there was plenty of stock market entertainment in the background all of last week. Welcome back…
4th Quarter Earnings Season Kick-Off
Like that 1st dorm room tequila shot before a long night, Alcoa got the quarterly earnings season going — and they just barely beat the forecasts on Tuesday. So why did investors rejoice at first? Because analysts wondered if the 4thquarter was a dark & painful one for corporations. Then Wells Fargo, the 1st bank to report earnings, disappointed investors, hitting financial stocks at the end of the week.
International Highlights
It’s simple. The only country playing around with US markets last week was your pal China. Higher demand for Chinese exports worldwide in December made investors giddy since analysts are always pumped to see the Chinese economy running on all Chinese-made cylinders.
Good Ol’ US Econ Data
Speaking of Chinese exports, did you hear the one about the US trade balance? The US trade deficit jumped last month after Americans bought up, gift wrapped, and handed out plenty of cheap not-made-in-America presents — the hefty $6 billion increase brings the monthly total deficit to $49.
Stock Winners & Losers
Apple fell on news they’re birthing a cheaper iPhone (about 100 bucks) for cost-conscience buyers. Boeing got decked after a fire on their new sweetheart, the Dreamliner plane, deeply worried investors. And KFC-owner Yum Brands got hit too after China (not exactly a leader in quality control, but whatever) said it’s investigating their chicken supplier.
Corporate Drama
$11.6 billion. That’s a lot of billions. And it’s the amount Bank of America is paying to settle lawsuits from bad mortgages it made during the pre-crisis era (Countrywide Financial, whom BoA bought in ’08, was the real bad guy responsible for the lame loans). And sketchy nutrition supplement company Herbalife got tossed all over the place last week as one hedge fund accused them of running a pyramid scheme, while another bought an 8.2% stake in their company.
This Week:
- Monday – Earnings: PPG
- Tuesday – December Retail Sales
- Wednesday – January Housing Market Index, Earnings: eBay, Goldman Sachs, Comerica, US Bank Corp, Wendy’s
- Thursday – Weekly Jobless Claims, December Building Permits & Housing Stars
- Friday – Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Poll,Earnings: GE, State Street, Morgan Stanley
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