Yes! All this is good news on the earnings. Thank goodness it came in above expectations! I sleep so much better when the earnings are negative but “not as bad as feared” because the analysts are the ones that really make value in my holdings… not the company’s profits.
Is everybody on here just looking to be negative? I realize human nature is generally not defined by optimism, but come on people!
The second we all stop focusing on the bad news and start spreading the good news, the sooner we’ll get out of this (and yes, the media has a HUGE influence on how most people react!!!)
It is the “catch-22″ of our time that the markets have so much control over our economy. Markets are inherently short-sighted and profit-driven. Regrettably, what we need now is some long-term vision and a little less attention on minute-to-minute swings in profitability. Wall Street IS NOT our economy. Yet its influence is widely felt. From the brides paid out by the Washington lobbyist, to the movement of jobs overseas, to campaign contributions meant to support this-or-that industry related bill, one needn’t have to look very hard for the corruptive influence of earnings…you need to scrape it off of your face. Attention to earnings has brought us to the brink.
‘And as I pointed out in a column last week, even some consumer companies such as McDonald’s (MCD, Fortune 500) and Pepsi (PEP, Fortune 500) are posting healthy results in this rocky economy.’
You fail to mention these profits come from oversees markets and do not reflect this economy. Get a psychologist to give financial advice and he will turn it into an everything-is-alright psychotherapy session..
maybe, maybe not. so what if companies beat wall street estimates. anyone can underestimate so they’re pleasantly surprised at mediocre earnings annoucements.
what should you think if Kraft reports higher than expected earnings? i don’t buy kraft products, but if they’re like other companies, they are charging the same if not more for less product…so they may have higher earnings b/c of cost cuts, but that doesn’t paint a pretty picture when you look at the consumers who have to buy 3 mac and cheeses a week now instead of only 1 to feed the fam.
Am I right to say that negative earnings are negative? How are they good? Because the beat a bean counters number? Are they not still down from previous years
Paul, Fannie and Freddie own half the mortgages in the US, correct? I’ve read that’s approximately $5 trillion. If even just 10% of those loans go bad, US taxpayers are now on the hook for $500 billion, or over $1 500 for each American citizen. So no, I don’t think bad news about the financials is being overblown.
Wall street is not paying too little attention to bank stocks. But they are paying too little attention to most of the rest of everything. (Except maybe oil, they are noticing that.)
Navigating investments right now is like driving on 5 lane freeway in heavy fog, lightning and the occasional tornado going by. Not only that, the heavy traffic is all going 80 miles an hour. Not the time to answer your cell phone or even drink your coffee.
You had best be paying attention to everything you can see, and looking around at what might be coming out of the fog too. No lazy “earnings up – good, earnings down – bad” or even “beat estimates – good, missed estimates – bad”. Wall street needs to pay more attention to what data indicates about the real world.
And a lot of people should be pulling out and parking until the storm passes.
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The market is paying the right amount of attention to financial earnings. Banks are now closing and being closed. There will be more. Make sure your cash is FDIC. Make sure your ‘money markets’ and ‘bonds’ are really bonds and not CDOs in disguise. Review your stock portfolio very carefully. Wait for the final panic selling. But, right now, it’s too late to sell and too soon to buy.