WORLD> America
|
WORLD> America
|
|
Wall Street eyes earnings, looking for bottom
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-20 09:44 NEW YORK -- With little question the US is in the grips of a recession, investors this week will lean on a stream of earnings and economic reports to help determine exactly how prolonged and painful the downturn might be.
There's certainly been fresh evidence the credit market has begun to thaw. But, that alone might not be enough to restore confidence in the stock market at a time when investors are clamoring for stronger signs of a bottom. Trying to predict a floor for major US stock market indexes has proven to be a difficult task. Wall Street ended a volatile two-week run fairly stable on Friday, and there were indications that bank-to-bank lending rates eased and that some companies returned to the bond market to raise cash. Those indicators might have previously been enough to reassure anxious investors that the worst is over for the stock market. However, amid a financial crisis not seen for decades, analysts still remain cautious. "If you can survive the whiplash of this bottom formation, then stocks look ridiculously cheap," said Edward Yardeni, president and market analyst at Yardeni Research. "But, there are bigger questions. Investors still want to see the light of day in this credit crisis, and they want to know if the current recession will be relatively short and shallow." He said the biggest question facing Wall Street is whether the stock market's current levels have priced in all the pain that goes along with a recession. Indexes could slip even further if the market is sideswiped by a disappointing batch of economic news or dour corporate reports. Sunday evening, stock index futures signaled a slightly higher open. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 54, or 0.61 percent, to 8,825. Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 7.30, or 0.78 percent, to 940.50; while Nasdaq-100 futures rose 7.00, or 0.53 percent, to 1,318. It was impossible to tell whether the market would hold at those levels by the time trading resumes Monday. Markets in Asia and Europe could set the tone for the start of the week in the US, and any news developments before the opening bell on Wall Street will ultimately determine how US stocks fare. Traders return to work Monday with a bit of history lingering over the session. Sunday marked the anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash known as "Black Monday." The Dow plunged 22.6 percent that day to mark the largest one-session percentage decline ever. The blue chip index that tracks 30 of America's biggest companies will begin trading Monday at the 8,852.22 level, down a stunning 37.5 percent from its record closing high of 14,164.53 set Oct. 9, 2007. Analysts remain mixed over whether the roller-coaster trading of recent weeks is a sign of capitulation, a Wall Street term that indicates a sense of despair among investors that's a perquisite to a rebound. The last time Wall Street reached such a cathartic level was during the last bear market, when the Dow fell 37.8 percent from a close of 11,722.98 on Jan. 14, 2000, to 7,286.27 on Oct. 9, 2002. However, then investors didn't have to worry about a recession blocking a rebound. |
