T3’s Market Wrap: Great Earnings and Mixed Stocks

Earnings season is a success.

IBM (IBM) was up nicely on a better-than-expected earnings report as the company's restructuring bears fruit.

But not all in tech was rosy – eBay (EBAY) took a hit on its weaker-than-forecast revenues. Raymond James also downgraded the stock.

United Rentals (URI) beat analysts' expectations but the stocks slid after the report.

Banks are still looking pretty good, with BNY Melon (BK) topping estimates.

Philip Morris (PM) reported a strong quarterly earnings number, but shares retreated on weak full-year guidance.

So yep, overall, earnings season is looking mighty good.

CNBC, quoting statistics from Thomson Reuters, said that for the 48 companies that have reported, earnings are up 25.3% and revenues are up 10.1%.

Analysts expected 21.4% earnings growth on 8.2% revenue growth.

However, stocks went sideways again today as traders debate the impact of the so-called trade war with China and the current controversy with Russia.

Also, stocks have come a long way off the  June lows, perhaps pricing in some good earnings season news already.

For the past couple of earnings seasons, the bears have been saying “things can't get better than this.”

I guessed they forgot trends can, and often do, last longer than may seem reasonable.

A key excerpt from the CNBC article:

These are very strong early results, and it's clear this is a lot more than just tax cuts,” David Aurelio, who follows earnings for Thomson Reuters, told CNBC. “The fact that companies are beating expectations at such a high rate is a real positive, considering expectations were very high going into the quarter.”

With the US dollar pointing up, gold got destroyed again today, touching a lot of $1210.70, a level not seen since July 17.

As you can see on the long-term chart I've been posting again and again, it looks like it's failing below a big wedge.

However, gold ripped late in the day, turning the gold mining stocks green.

Silver is in pretty rough shape too. As you can see on the second chart, silver appears on the verge of losing long-term support around $15.20 to $15.70.