We are now more than halfway through earnings season and it seems that economic slowdown and trade war fears are not manifesting. We still have a long way to go to get through this reporting period buy according to Standard & Poor’s, 74.47% of companies that reported have beaten earnings per share estimates and 48.9% beat market consensus revenue estimates. About 43% of companies that reported beat earnings and revenue expectations. Maybe this is the reason the equity and high yield bond markets rebounded so sharply.
It seems like Apple is the only company disappointing investors in any significant way. While they might like to blame their problems on China, we think they have to take a little more ownership. They have pushed prices too far and now they are going to have to adjust. We suspect the price of iPhones will fat 10 to 15% in the developed economies and 15 to 20% in the developing economies and China. But there is good news on the horizon. Microsoft is getting out of the phone business and telling windows phones users that they will stop supporting the phone operating system by the end of 2019. They are recommending their customers migrate to Android or iPhone.
The following are Earnings Estimates for Companies Reporting Through the Week. If you own any of these names in your portfolio, be sure to keep an eye on their announcements.
Monday 21-January-2019
Tuesday 22-January-2019
Wednesday 23-January-2019
Thursday 24-January-2019
Friday 25-January-2019
