A better than expected earnings season? It's early, but I see signs that things may be a little better than some were expecting:
1) Alcoa was surprisingly bullish on China, talking about growth in automotive, heavy trucks, and building and construction, and beverage packaging;
2) Danaher, a widely watched multi-industry firm with interests in healthcare and industrial businesses, said earnings would be above expectations and that the gains were "broad-based across most of our businesses,"
3) disc drive maker Seagate raised its revenue forecast;
4) jeweler Signet said yesterday holiday season same store sales were up 3.3 percent, higher than expected.
Again, it's early, but these news pieces are impacting all their respective sectors.
Meantime: keep an eye on bank stocks. They've been market leaders, but they were being sold early on today. On an up day, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Citi and others are down.
It's a little odd, because banks typically sell off immediately after earnings start to come out, not before.
This may be because better news in Industrials and Techs (see above) are causing some money to move out of Financials.
It was all so damn long ago: CNBC was born on April 17, 1989.
Early earnings returns from the first quarter are in, and there is a clear warning: higher wage costs, higher raw material costs, and higher transport costs are weighing on earnings.
Stocks are rallying around the world on strong China economic data and Jamie Dimon's supportive comments on the U.S. economy.
A CNBC reporter since 1990, Bob Pisani covers Wall Street from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
A CNBC reporter since 1990, Bob Pisani covers Wall Street from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Earnings from major banks, as well as UnitedHealth Group and Netflix, kicked off what could be a rocky earnings season.
For five of the past six weeks, the level of initial jobless filings totaled exactly 212,000.
These are the stocks posting the largest moves in midday trading.
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