As a kid, I spent countless hours playing at the playground with friends during the summer. This summer, it seems the market is determined to have its turn riding the seesaw. As the following chart illustrates, the market is up one week and down the next. Up, down, up, down and the pattern has continued now for the past seven weeks.
(Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com)
Will this week make eight weeks? If so, it will be on the downside if it keeps the seesaw pattern going. As for me, my focus right now is less on the price action, and more focused towards earning season.
We are firmly entrenched in earning reports and the big question we want to know is, can earning growth spark the next leg higher for the market?
While we all want to know the future, we prefer to focus more on the facts. So far, the facts look encouraging. 64.2% of the companies reporting have beaten estimates. With this said, only 10% of companies have reported so it’s still too early to gain any actionable investing edge yet.
(chart courtesy of Bespoke — http://www.bespokeinvest.com/thinkbig/2014/7/18/earnings-and-revenue-beat-rates.html)
As always, if and when the facts change – so shall we.
