As we entered the quarterly earnings season, two big companies posted disappointing results on Tuesday. Alcoa announced that it had earned a profit of just 1 cent per share - the consensus forecast was more like 6 cents per share - and Chevron warned that its fourth-quarter numbers would be disappointing. Both stocks fell on Tuesday, Aloca by a lot and Chevron by a little bit. Since they're both components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Dow fell too, losing 37 points.
We're about to see a lot more economic snapshots of the fourth quarter of last year. KBHome, a Los Angeles-based homebuilder, reports earnings today, and although analysts are predicting a loss of 42 cents per share, it could be a bellwether for the entire housing market. Intel provides its earnings report on Thursday, which should give us a good window into the strength of the tech sector, both in what they report for the fourth quarter of '09 and in what they see ahead for the first quarter of '10. JPMorgan Chase is up on Friday, which should give us a glimpse into the health of the financial sector.
That's three key stocks in three critical sectors of the economy. All three reports will be well worth watching.
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