(As of 7:30 am PST)
It’s
a quiet day on Wall Street Wednesday as investors looked ahead to the release
of the most recent Federal Open Market Committees’ (FOMC) meeting minutes for
clues on the timing of the Fed’s first rate hike. Today also kicks off the
unofficial start to Q1 earnings season with former Dow component, Alcoa set to
announce earnings after the bell. There are a lot of nerves heading into this
particular earnings season as the strengthening dollar and the drop in oil
prices have pinched the balance sheets of many companies, especially
multinationals in the past several months. According to last week’s FactSet
report, the year-over-year EPS forecast for the S&P500 in Q1 is projected
to decline by -4.6%, the first quarterly decline since Q3 2012. Across the
pond, things are not much better, however markets continue to march higher.
European stocks set a record earlier today as news of an energy deal between
Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BG Group PLC paced gains. Asian markets also were
higher with the Hong Kong Exchange closing at its highest level since December
2007. While volatility has been kept under control recently, expect it
to pick up in the coming weeks as earnings season kicks into full swing.
No comments:
Post a Comment