Täna saab tulemuste hooaeg avatud kui peale turu lõppu raporteerivad Alcoa (AA), Genentech (DNA) ja Yahoo! (YHOO).
Enne turu avanemist on olulisematest tulemustest laekunud Accenture (ACN) tulemused, ootustele vastavate tulemuste järel on aktsia eelturul -1,80%, antud turusituatsioonis lihtsalt prognooside täitmist ilmselt ei väärtustata.
Massiliselt kasumihoiatusi on laekunud tarkvaratootjatelt, hoiatuse andnud on eelturul suures miinuses: Ascential Software (ASCL) -18,90%, JDA Software (JDAS) -13,50%, Kana Software (KANA) -12,32%, Peoplesoft (PSFT) - 7.85%.
Prognoose kergitanud Quest Software (QSFT) aktsia aga +7,65%.
Rev Shark:
"If Thomas Edison invented electric light today, Dan Rather would report it on CBS News as, "Candle-making industry threatened."
-- Newt Gingrich
The market suffered one of its weakest days of the year yesterday as technology stocks led the selloff. The selloff took place on heavy volume and left few sectors untouched, but the most troubling aspect was the breach of important technical support levels in all the major indices.
Quite often, market participants struggle to understand what caused a particular move in the market. This time there wasn't any great mystery; there has been no good news for the bulls to use as justification for buying. We have had more than the usual number of earnings warnings, some from bellwethers, and a spate of weaker-than-expected economic news. The bulls simply have not been given any convenient reason to justify buying.
The bulls will argue that things really aren't that bad. The economy is still growing, interest rates are under control, and the "good" earnings reports will be out soon. Perhaps, but probably the biggest positive for the bulls is that the aggressive selloff should decrease the high level of optimism we have had recently. There have been too many bulls, and that has probably reduced that amount of buying power out there to drive the market up. Days like yesterday go a long way toward increasing the amount of cash on the sidelines that can used to fuel a future rally.
The bulls' best hope right now is that the earnings season produce some good reports that will help change the market mood. We have Alcoa (AA:NYSE), Genetech (DNA:NYSE) and Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq) reporting after the close tonight, but the great bulk of reports doesn't start until next week. The Yahoo! report tonight probably has the best potential for bringing in some buying, but it is a highly anticipated event, and investor expectations may still be quite high.
One of the benefits of the recent market softness is that good earnings report can have a favorable impact. Expectations are not high, and we are unlikely to see a sell-the-news reaction to solid reports.
With the exception of the earnings reports mentioned above, there is a paucity of news events that is going to make it tough going for the bulls who badly need some catalyst to spark some buying. Throw in the technical damage that has been done, and we are going to need to be very suspicious of any rally right now.
The key sector to watch today is software. There were more warnings in the sector last night after the group led to the downside yesterday. If this group can find a bottom, that would be a positive, but the news so far has been surprisingly bad, and buyers are unlikely to be interested in bargain-hunting at this juncture.
The bulls are hopeful that this weakness is setting us up for a good rally when earnings reports start to hit in earnest. That may well be the case, and that hope is likely to help support the market for the next few days.
We have a little bounce in futures to start the day Overseas markets did little, but oil is trading down. The dollar is weak, and gold has spiked up and is making a run at the $400 level again.
Gary B. Smith