Wary Markets Focus on Earnings

albena
17 Apr, 2005
New York City

After the U.S. government's announcement Tuesday that trade deficit reached record values in February, March retail sales on Wednesday were soundly weaker than foreseen. The growing concerns over the health of the U.S. economy and higher prices resulted in the worst trading week since August and will move the focus onto the companies

Some of the giants slated to report the coming week are Intel Corp. ((INTC)), Pfizer Inc. ((PFE)), General Motors Corp. ((GM)), Ford Motor Co. ((F)), Merrill Lynch & Co. ((MER)), Coca-Cola Co. ((KO)), Yahoo Inc. ((YHOO)), eBay Inc. ((EBAY))

Wall Street underwent its worst day in almost two years on Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average declining 191 points. In Asia, Japanese and South Korean shares dropped more than 4%.

A broad MSCI index of Asian shares, excluding Japan, slid 2.8%.

For the week ended April 15 Dow Jones industrial was down 3.57%; S&P's 500 Index was down 3.27%; Nasdaq Composite was off 4.56%.

The selloff was assisted by IBM Corp. ((IBM)) announcing profits below expectations. Strong earnings from General Electric Co. ((GE)) and Citigroup Inc. ((C)) were overlooked.

Concerns about oil prices have diminished - a barrel of light crude oil settled at $50.49, down 64 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, following the two-week downtrend.

Thursday US markets losses also affected the Nikkei stock average that dropped 1.66%.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 closed down 1.09%, France's CAC-40 lost 1.92%, and Germany's DAX index was down 2.04%.

The Nasdaq fell 91.20, or 4.56%, during the week, closing Friday at 1,908.15.

The Russell 2000 index closed the week 29.97, or 4.91%, lower at 580.78.

Hit by the poor results from major tech companies such as IBM and Samsung, Asian stocks may extend losses this week amid a bulk of U.S. corporate earnings.

After the U.S. Federal Reserve warned markets about inflation risks U.S. inflation data will be eagerly expected mid-week.