A slew of earnings hit the wires this morning including several Dow components which failed to impress, including DuPont with a 59% fall in quarterly earnings and cutting its full year 2009 forecasts due to weak demand.
What To Watch For In The US Session
• Dow Components Fail To Impress On Earnings Releases
• Caterpillar Reports Quarterly Loss
• ABC Consumer Confidence On Tap
Dow Components Earnings Fail To Impress, Caterpillar Posts Quarterly Loss
A slew of earnings hit the wires this morning including several Dow components which failed to impress, including DuPont with a 59% fall in quarterly earnings and cutting its full year 2009 forecasts due to weak demand. Although, the chemical maker beat estimates with earnings per share of $0.54 versus $0.52, the dour outlook should weigh on its shares when markets open as the company announced that it will seek more cost cutting measures. Caterpillar kept the bearish news coming by reporting a loss of $0.19 per share citing a $588 million charge for layoffs. However, absent the redundancy charge earnings were $0.39 per share versus expectations of $0.04 which could limit the damage for the heavy equipment manufacturer. Meanwhile, Merck added to the bearish sentiment by missing estimates of $0.77 with earnings of $0.74 per share. Inline results from Coca Cola and United Technologies of $0.65 and $0.78 won’t offset growing pessimism as they both saw double digit declines in earnings from a year a go. The only economic release to dot the calendar is the ABC consumer confidence report which is expected to show a slight improvement which makes it a non-factor today.
Dow Jones 7841.73
The DJIA futures are trading lower and with the weak earnings from its components we could see it extend its losses from yesterday. However, oil prices stabilizing today after yesterday’s 9% drop could add support for energy names.
NASDAQ 1608.21
The Nasdaq could also come under pressure in the back of the broader risk aversion as cautious trader look to take profits in the tech sector. The index failed to hold onto fresh yearly highs and could look to continue to retrace before resuming its current upward trend.
S&P 500 832.39
The broader index will also see price action dictated by earnings as it will see 25% of its components report this week. Although traders are expecting dismal reports, it will be the outlooks that dictate sentiment. If companies continue to paint a dour outlook then we could see losses continue today.
