On the face of it, market sentiment has turned very positive again; the S&P 500 is trading right beneath record highs and gold has just hit five year lows. Investors are shunning the safe-haven status of Gold in favour of high-flying tech stocks like of Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX).
Disappointing numbers from IBM (NYSE:IBM) reported afterhours could weigh on the Dow Jones a little but nevertheless US markets are set to open higher before the most widely-watched set of results of the reporting season are released by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).
Shares of International Business Machines (LONDON:IBMI) look like opening lower after “Big Blue” saw a bigger than expected drop in revenues and guided to the lower end of the range for profits this year. IBM has seen revenues decline for 13 straight quarters; progress has been very slow reorientating away from the slowing PC business. IBM’s earnings woes were exacerbated by the strength of the US dollar.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s earnings after Tuesday’s close could be another doozy. The shares are sitting just below the April highs so another strong performance should see a new record, with the S&P 500 probably not far behind. The Apple Watch presents a bit more of an unknown for this quarter but sales would probably need to be really disappointing to outweigh the current trend of massive iPhone sales. Even if the Watch is not a long term success, there should be enough die-hard Apple fans to generate some impressive initial numbers.
Microsoft, GoPro, Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), Travellers, Harley-Davidson, Verizon and Chipotle all report earnings on Tuesday.
Futures suggest the:
S&P 500 will open unchanged at 2,128 with the
Dow Jones expected to open 28 points higher at 18,072 and the
Nasdaq 100 6 points higher at 4,685
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