Stocks will likely take a breather today following the strong
gains on Tuesday, particularly given the absence of any major
economic reports on the docket. It is quiet out of Spain today as
well following that country's over-subscribed auction of shorter
maturity bonds on Tuesday. A key test comes on Thursday when Spain
has to auction two and 10-year government bonds, which will provide
a better measure of investor confidence in the country's
outlook.
On the earnings front, the first quarter reporting
season is off to a fairly good start, both relative to
expectations as well as relative to where we were at this stage in
the preceding quarter. With about 10% of the results already in,
earnings are up 3.7% from the year-earlier level. At this
admittedly early stage, roughly 77% of the companies have come out
ahead of expectations, with a median earnings surprise of 3.9%. We
will have a much better sense of the aggregate earnings picture in
the coming days, but some of the exaggerated pre-season fears were
likely off the mark.
Of this morning's major earnings releases, we got positive
earnings and revenue surprises from
Halliburton
(
HAL
) and
Abbot Labs
(
ABT
).
Yahoo
(
YHOO
) came out with better than expected results after the close on
Tuesday, while results from
Intel
(
INTC
) and
IBM
(
IBM
) proved less inspiring. We have results from
eBay
(
EBAY
) coming out after the close today.
In corporate news,
Pfizer
(
PFE
) is reportedly close to finalizing a deal to sell its infant
formula business for $9 billion to
Nestle
. This is part of Pfizer's ongoing plan to shed non-core businesses
to focus more on its core drugs franchise. Headlines about Warren
Buffet's health will likely keep
Berkshire Hathaway
(
BRK.B
) in the spotlight today.
ABBOTT LABS (
ABT
): Free Stock Analysis Report
BERKSHIRE HTH-B (BRK.B): Free Stock Analysis
Report
EBAY INC (
EBAY
): Free Stock Analysis Report
HALLIBURTON CO (
HAL
): Free Stock Analysis Report
INTL BUS MACH (
IBM
): Free Stock Analysis Report
PFIZER INC (
PFE
): Free Stock Analysis Report
YAHOO! INC (YHOO): Free Stock Analysis Report
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