By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – I love surprises and I love change. And so far, the earning season has granted me both. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Midday.
No one, quite yet, is willing to say we've turned the corner. We've said it before, only to find a wall blocking us from a new direction. But earning season, just in its second week, has pleasantly surprised Wall Street. Yesterday's rally in the stock market brought all the indices, the Dow, NASDAQ, S&P 500, even the Wilshire 5000, the broadest measure of the market - to three-month highs. Volume was even up. Although based on my research, the small investor is still on the sidelines. It's as much the trust factor as it is the losses they incurred over the past few years. Companies are still being investigated for fraud, corporate executives are still living in their own little world, and indictments are being handed down.
I was most pleased yesterday, when I heard President Bush sing a new tune about Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. For a while there, the administration was humming the death march as Greenspan voiced his opposition to the President's tax cut plan. Greenspan's term is up next year, and it was hinted that he would not be asked to stay for another. So as Alan headed to the hospital for surgery on an enlarged prostate - pretty common, I'm told when you're 77 - Bush told reporters, "I think Alan Greenspan should get another term."
You might think I'm contradicting myself. I did say I like change, but I would be most happy if the foundation in my home stays just where it's at. And Alan has become a symbolic foundation for our economy. He plans on being back at his desk by the end of the week. It was a smart move by Bush. Anything to get strengthen investor confidence.
So here are a few of the companies that beat estimates for the last quarter: AOL Time Warner, AT&T, eBay, Lucent, and Bell South. Even Boeing came in with narrower than expected losses. But the market is still cautious here. Many more earnings are yet to come. No waiting for AMR. "Truly dreadful" is how they see last quarter's greater than expected loss of over $1 billion. No surprise there. For KERA Marketplace Midday, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m.
Email Maxine Shapiro about this story.