Earnings season kicks off tomorrow with Alcoa. For my money, this will perhaps be the most important earning season this year considering the shellacking this market has taken. Multiples have contracted severely since the peak in Feb in anticipation of lower earnings and reduced forecasts.
Some stocks, specially financials might are likely to make strong moves in either direction depending on how badly the market overestimated or underestimated their exposure to bad credit and defaults.
Others to watch are energy. The earnings coming out of integrated oils, refiners and drillers might provide some insight into how much of this $145 barrel of oil is due to a weak dollar and how much is due to global demand.
This Q2 earnings season might provide the Fed with some direction of whether to keep rates pat or to start increasing.
Good or bad, this earnings season promises to be an interesting one.
-- Faisal Laljee