The report, coupled with continuing concerns about future corporate earnings, pushed down the major indexes for the week.
Uncertainty about the outlook for corporate earnings pushed investors toward the exits yesterday as major stock market indexes posted their first declines of the week.
As part owners, the thinking goes, managers will single-mindedly work to increase company earnings, pushing up share prices and reaping rewards for themselves and outside shareholders alike.
However, losses at the internet giant's Motorola arm, which it has just agreed to sell to Lenovo, weighed on earnings, pushing it to a loss of $384m in the quarter.
Strong bank earnings pushed the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index to 22-month highs yesterday, but technology stocks lagged on disappointing news from Lucent Technologies and Motorola.
A study* by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi of the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business pins down the size of this effect, using the credit records of almost 70,000 American borrowers.It could be that an unseen influence, such as greater optimism about future earnings, pushed up both house prices and debt.
Regions Financial posted a slim 1.1% increase in first-quarter earnings, pushing shares up 8.4%, or $1.56, to close at $20.10 on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Regions Financial posted a slim 1.1% increase in first-quarter earnings, pushing shares up 6.7%, or $1.25, to $19.81 in morning trading.
Despite an increase in its Health Imaging sales, which were up 5%, gross margins got the best of operational earnings, pushing the results down 8% year-over-year to $108 million.
While some of the price gain occurs immediately after the report a rise in earnings pushes up the price even if the p/e stays put–I have often earned fat returns by buying shares right after good reports and waiting for analysts to catch up.
