Yesterday’s earnings wrapup suggested three best bets, Caterpillar, Merck and UnitedHealth Group. All three companies exceeded expectations and posted strong gains. Caterpillar rose nearly 8%, Merck was up +6% and UnitedHealth gained 3%. The Dow and Nasdaq, by contrast, were flat for the… Read More

Early March 2009 is not only notable for its cheap stocks. It’s also the strongest the dollar has been since 2006. It’s also the strongest it will be for quite some time. At its high on March 5, it took $1.25 to buy a euro. The dollar has since lost… Read More

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) turns in its quarterly report card this evening after the closing bell. Its earnings, like any company’s, are all about the past. With Apple, the direction to look is forward. First, the basics: Apple… Read More

When it rains, it pours. And we’ll see how that bodes for the market as Wall Street is deluged with second-quarter earnings reports today, led by five Dow components during the day and culminating with results from Apple after the… Read More

“In the coming year, the Securities and Exchange Commission will complete its examination of the [nation’s rating agencies] role in rating residential mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations linked to subprime mortgage loans.” So said… Read More

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) earned $2.7 billion this quarter, up +36% from $2.0 billion in the second quarter of 2008. Morgan earned 28 cents a share, a -47% decline from 53 cents a share a year ago. The results reflected a charge of $1.1 billion, or 27… Read More

Smaller business inventories and increased sales are good signs in a recession. Economic data released today show the first has already happened and the second appears to be happening. Consumer products and basic materials shares gained on the news, up +1.2% and +1.5%, respectively,… Read More

A key measure of wholesale prices rose in June at nearly twice the increase economists had forecast. It was the sharpest rise for the index since November 2007. The Producer Price Index, which tracks how much it costs for manufacturers to make things,… Read More

Star banking analyst Meredith Whitney upgraded Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) from “neutral” to “buy,” saying she expects second-quarter earnings to be $4.65 per share compared with the average analyst estimate of $3.65. Goldman is scheduled to report earnings tomorrow before the market opens. Read More

IPO market is very thin because companies that aren’t top notch know they’ll get slammed,” says Amy Calistri, editor of StreetAuthority’s Stock of the Month, adding “In this environment, companies that aren’t the cream of the crop are wise to find capital elsewhere… Read More