S&P 500 Analysis & ETF Trading

[kiy]

Earnings season...


http://marketfy.com/content/78310-worst-earnings-season-in-5-years
On New Year’s Eve, forward earnings expectations underlying the Standard & Poor’s 500 index were pegged to rise 4.2% during the first quarter versus a year earlier, according to FactSet data. Now that same group is projecting a fall of -4.6% in estimates!. This would mark the first decline in forward estimates since 2012. All 10 S&P sectors have seen estimates slide, but nothing is as bad as the energy sector. Due to the continued slide in oil prices, first-quarter earnings estimates are expected to plummet a whopping -64%.

Then there was that truly stinky jobs number that came out last Friday which, at the very least, gives consumers and economists pause until next month. All told, current economic conditions create a rather messy and uncertain situation going forward that could impact both Q1 earnings and future guidance to boot. And if there is anything investors do NOT like, it is future uncertainty.