Midnight Trader's  Instablog

Stocks ended their sixth straight week with gains, but a number of financial companies, including Bank of America (BAC) and U.S. Bancorp (USB) still have yet to report results. Aside from banks, technology companies will also dominate earnings this week as investors hear from IBM (IBM), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD).

Goldman Sachs (GS) and Wells Fargo (WFC) have eased some investors concerns after posting earnings improvements in the first-quarter, however, some of the optimism was reigned in last week after UBS AG (UBS) said it expects to report a first-quarter loss of nearly $1.75 billion and will cut 8,700 jobs worldwide by the end of next year. Citigroup (C) also reported better-than-expected first-quarter results Friday, though the company continues to take charges to reserve for consumer defaults.

General Electric (GE) is due to report its Q1 results in the pre-market on Friday, April 17. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report a profit of $0.21 per share on revenue of $39 billion. While most of Wall Street has shied away from GE, and for good reason, the time has come for a rebound on the heels of an in-line or upside earnings surprise.

From a fundamental point of view, the company maintains a healthy cash position and increasing revenues from the energy infrastructure and technology infrastructure segments. In addition, the company has signed new contracts and expanded a manufacturing facility in China, improving margins on related products and expanding its foothold in a country likely to become an ever greater economic engine.

The GE Capital credit concerns have been overblown and investors have been stepping back into the stock, pushing it up from staggering lows in the 6’s recent to over $11. There is still time and room to run. With a health dividend yield of greater than 10% and the sector’s lowest P/E, most investors would be wise to get paid while waiting for the stock price to rise.