"The Stock Market was in a 2 week Downtrend" that is about to go into a major 'Reversal to the Upside' Why you ask? The bulk of the earnings season has started today and will go into full steam ahead for the next two weeks. So far earnings have only beat estimates by 5% overall but that is about to change & should go much higher now within the next 14 days which will give a much better picture of the market.
Also helping stocks going into the next two weeks is the falling US dollar which is making bonds unattractive compared to stocks coupled with rising inflation.
Last Wednesday, the Commerce Department announced that U.S. retail sales rose 0.4% in March. Excluding vehicle sales, core retail sales rose 0.8% in March. In the past 12 months, retail sales are up 7.1%, so consumer spending remains surprisingly strong, and this is despite higher gasoline prices.
Today Afterhours we got Monster beats by:
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Reports EPS $6.40 vs. $5.36 Estimate; Revenues $24.67B vs. $23.34B Estimate $AAPL
Forward Air Reports EPS $0.27 vs. $0.23 Estimate; Revenues $120.2M vs. $119.78M Estimate $FWRD
Edwards Lifesciences Reports EPS $0.51 vs. $0.42 Estimate; Revenues $404.5M vs. $384.15M Estimate $EW
Gardner Denver Reports EPS $1.13 vs. $0.95 Estimate; Revenues $531.9M vs. $502.29M Estimate $GDI
Select Comfort Reports EPS $0.30 vs. $0.19 Estimate; Revenues $193.1M vs. $165.56M Estimate $SCSS
Tractor Supply Reports EPS $0.24 Vs. $0.16 Est.; Revenues of $836.6M Vs. $797.9M Est. $TSCO
BJ's Restaurants Reports EPS $0.25 vs. $0.19 Estimate; Revenues $144.9M vs. $141.52M Estimate $BJRI
$QCOM reports 86c vs 80c est. $3.87 bln revs vs $3.62 bln est.
F5 Networks Reports EPS $0.88 vs. $0.86 Estimate; Revenues $277.6M vs. $277.68M Estimate $FFIV
Earnings season started in earnest last night with :
- 04:05PM Albemarle Reports Record Quarterly Sales, Income and EPS PR Newswire
- 19-Apr-11 04:32PM UPDATE 1-Stryker quarterly profit tops expectations at Reuters
- Intel Q1 Blows Away Estimates; Q2 View Beats; Stock Up 6% at Barrons.com (Tue 4:55PM EDT)
- Yahoo Tops Wall Street's Profit View; Shares Jump CNBC (Tue 4:57PM EDT)