Famous Quotes & Sayings

Mark Watson

Interest rates, to me, matter more than earnings growth, ... The prospect that rates are going up will revalue the whole market.

I just don't know how far we'll be able to go with the Fed helping us out. At some juncture, the numbers as far as earnings are going to have to turn around.

If people we're really trying to manipulate earnings you would think they would have done a better job.

Subodh Kumar

In the very short term, you are seeing a response to the economic news, and that can give the market some buoyancy. Whereas in September and October, the above-consensus earnings enabled the market to perform better than it traditionally has, in November the focus switches to the economy.

In the United States, there's the question of technology companies' earnings that is complicating matters. The market is highly volatile, with options expiration, oil prices falling. It's a combination of many things.

I don't know how to handicap terrorism, other than to say that I think the risk premium should be higher than it is. But I think I can predict, directionally, earnings and the momentum of the economy.

I'm happy to report that the first-quarter earnings surpassed our expectations.

Intel's earnings announcement has made investors skittish about the prospects for other chipmakers and computer-related companies.

Because Amex is so diversified in interacting with the consumer, if they're trying to talk down their earnings expectations, the implication is, 'What does that mean for what's going on in the economy?'

But if you step back, it seems to me that we're still in the trading range we've been in for some time. There's still the push and pull between rising earnings and rising interest rates.

This initial earnings guidance for 2006 reflects the fact that the integration of May is going to be a more challenging and longer-term task than some investors had expected.

They run about 111 hospitals. It has about a 20 percent rise in earnings this year. Five- year projections are 20 percent annually. It's got operating margin around 20 percent.

The hourly earnings number was a little weaker than forecast. That means that more people are working, but wage pressure remains contained, and that helps profitability.

The hourly earnings numbers are soft obviously in January, but if you look at it on a three-month trend, in fact, you still find hourly earnings running at something like a 5-percent annualized rate. So I don't think that's going to sway the Fed's fear on the wage front completely.

Brenda Lee

The growth of earnings per share this year does not justify the 100 percent shares increase.

A higher valuation is justified when a company's earnings growth is significant. AMD's growth prospects are substantially higher than Intel's.

John Bartlett

You've got earnings growth visibility that's stronger than the market. M&A is a tailwind.

The majority of earnings have been good, but there have been some misses and the market has reacted violently to them. This is a week that has put me on alert.

The Iraq situation is going to loom pretty heavily. Some of the things I'd hoped would provide a stimulus, like the earnings announcements, haven't been there. We're going to be stuck in a trading range.

The underlying fundamentals of the market still remain very healthy. We are looking at good solid earnings growth in the first quarter and economic growth that has bounced back.

The type of investors who own this stock are not looking at it saying, 'I'm willing to pay 80 times earnings for this stock but not 85 times earnings,'

This is material. From what we're seeing, earnings estimates should probably go up for the fourth quarter, and 2005 numbers might come up as well.

This is a great start to 2006 and supports increasing our full-year earnings outlook.

Apple's results are going to put a damper on stocks this morning. Investors are worried that it may set the tone for other reports at the start of the earnings season.

Any rise in global oil prices increases their earnings substantially,

Any (profit) short-fall in that growth rate at 110 times earnings means there's some risk in these stocks.

As earnings fall, corporations are quick to slash compensation costs, and that is brining about wholesale job cuts.

Right now, we have this positive confluence of earnings and economic news that has been propelling the market.

Right now the perception is we are not going to get the earnings recovery we thought we were going to get.

Right now the market is showing a positive reaction to yesterday's earnings results.

Right now, the market is showing a positive reaction to yesterday's earnings results. But investors are also in something of a wait-and-see mood, as we have earnings from industrial electronics firms tomorrow.

Practically in every quarter lately, we've had this feeling that we're at the peak, this is it, no more growth. That's why you see a lot of volatility but, ultimately, the Dow or the other indexes end up not having moved much. But one day we may see earnings growth decelerate, and it could be this year.

Quarterly earnings are still made up to be too important, in my judgment. There's too much focus on the short term by far.