After a wild third quarter, the market seems to have stabilized a bit this week, in spite of a late Friday drop. With little macro-data news, investors turned their focus to Europe's debt crisis and third-quarter earnings season. Company-specific news drove stocks; here's a closer look at some of the S&P 500's most notable movers.
A bruising session on Wall Street Thursday wiped more than 500 points off the Dow - its worst drop since October 2008. Driving the fear is growing concern about the possibility of another recession. Will the selloff continue Friday? It all depends on the Labor Department's employment report.
Earnings season has officially kicked into high gear: 39 companies have reported so far, with the S&P reporting an earnings per share surprise of 6.8%. The best results include increases in financials, consumer discretionary, and materials. Here are some highlights.
When is a 27% increase in sales, and a doubling of profits, bad news? It certainly sounds like an exceptional circumstance, but that's where Alcoa finds itself today, having missed earnings estimates and facing a discouraging free cash flow.
Earnings season unofficially kicks off today, but 26 companies have already reported for the second quarter of this year. According to institutional data provider Capital IQ, here are some of the highlights so far:
The aluminum giant turned a first-quarter profit on stronger sales at higher prices that were offset by a weaker dollar and higher costs for energy and raw materials.
Home retailers Bed Bath & Beyond and Pier 1 Imports are scheduled to post quarterly earnings this week, along with Monsanto, the biotech, agriculture and chemical giant. Here's what analysts expect to see.
With the jet industry preparing to shift into overdrive, Precision Castparts is in a great position to take advantage of new contracts from aircraft builders, including Cessna and Boeing.
Stocks closed sharply higher Monday with the Dow Jones posting a triple-digit gain as technology stocks rallied after Intel raised its dividend and expanded its share buybacks by $10 billion. The index last saw 12,000 in June 2008 -- on the way down.
Tech stocks rose after Intel hiked its dividend and said it would buy back more of its stock. And materials companies jumped after a report showed economists are more positive about growth and the job market than at any time since the Great Recession started.
Once again, profit reports are expected to be a tale of strong growth, thanks more to cost cuts than revenue gains. And perhaps even more telling, fourth-quarter 2010 earnings are competing with downright dismal reports for the year-earlier period. [Video]
Alcoa, Intel and JPMorgan Chase will kick off a new earnings season this week when they report their results for the fourth quarter of 2010. Here's what analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect, followed by a glance at what's coming up on the economic calendar.
Among Monday's top online stories for investors: Mining for treasures in the AMEX, why we desperately need a better Google, Jim Cramer's top Dow picks for 2011.
If struggling homeowners can make trial modified mortgage payments, the next logical step, it seems, would be to make the modifications permanent. Sadly, however, this is a rare occurrence. Follow the stories of three families as they wrestle with the foreclosure process.