The markets are closed today in observance of the MLK Day.
We don’t have much on the economic calendar this week, other than a few housing-related reports. The focus will be on the fourth-quarter earnings season that got underway last week, with solid numbers from Intel and JP Morgan.
But the reporting season gets into high gear this week, with 128 companies reporting results, including 50 S&P 500 companies. On the docket are firms like Apple, Google, Citigroup, IBM, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and General Electric, to name just the more prominent blue-chip names.
By the end of this week, the overall trend for the fourth-quarter earnings season will be pretty much in place. At this stage, expectations are for earnings to be up a little over 21% in the fourth quarter. That is down from the third-quarter growth pace of about 25%, but significantly better than where the growth expectations were at this stage of the reporting cycle.
My sense is that the fourth-quarter earnings gains will be in excess of 25%, taking the full-year 2010 earnings growth to the 50% vicinity. This would be a stand-out performance by any measure, setting us up for solid performance in 2011.
Sheraz Mian
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