Something that I like to watch for as we head into the thick of earnings season is the market’s reaction to quarterly earnings reports. Although one day does not make a trend, I went ahead & put together some stats on the market’s reaction to the most recent batch of earnings reports. I chose yesterday because the US equity markets were essentially flat, with the $SPX virtually flat at a close of -0.15%, the $NDX closing up +0.42%, S&P Mid-Cap index a flat +0.01%, S&P Small-Cap index -0.24% & the Dow Jones Total Stock Market Index closing at -0.11%. That’s about as flat an overall market close as you get. Therefore, all other things being equal, the reaction to individual companies that reported after the bell on Monday or before the open yesterday shouldn’t have been influenced by money flows in or out of the broad market tracking instruments (e.g. – S&P 500 index funds, QQQ, IWM, etc…), as is most often the case.
