Global Spotlight
Seeking an End to Israel’s Political Deadlock. Israel may have at least one shot at seeing its political paralysis broken when Benny Gantz, of the Blue and White party, attempts to oust Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, an ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, next week.
COVID-19 in Africa. After initially being spared from an outbreak of the coronavirus that has ravaged Europe, Asia and North America, sub-Saharan African countries are seeing the number of confirmed cases increase.
Brexit Talks and COVID-19. The next round of trade talks between the European Union and the United Kingdom, which was supposed to take place next week in London, has been suspended because of the coronavirus crisis — though the talks may still take place via videoconference.
Fed Meeting. The U.S. Federal Reserve’s policymaking Federal Open Market Committee holds a regularly scheduled meeting on March 17-18 and markets expect a further, decisive interest rate cut that would bring the most basic interest rate close to or to zero.
G-7 Coordination. U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Twitter their desire for a leader’s video conference early next week to discuss coordinated responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stratfor.com
Economic Calendar
Briefing.com has a good U.S. economic calendar for the week. Here are the main U.S. releases.
Briefing.com
Last Weeks Numbers
Review Last weeks numbers here.
Earnings
Source I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv
Aggregate Estimates and Revisions
- Fourth quarter earnings are expected to increase 3.1% from 18Q4. Excluding the energy sector, the earnings growth estimate is 6.0%.
- Of the 496 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings to date for 19Q4, 70.0% have reported earnings above analyst expectations. This compares to a long-term average of 65% and prior four quarter average of 74%.
- 19Q4 revenue is expected to increase 5.8% from 18Q4. Excluding the energy sector, the growth estimate is 7.1%.
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