By Wallace Witkowski, MarketWatch
Most big banks report earnings this week
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)--Bank of America Corp. along with
the rest of the financial sector is expected to do a fair share of
heavy lifting this earnings season as quarterly reports ramp up
this week.
Stocks finished higher for the second week of gains
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-futures-ease-with-lacker-speech-apple-watch-in-focus-2015-04-10)
as both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and the S&P 500
index (SPX) finished the week up 1.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite
Index (RIXF) gained 2.2%.
Of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500, health care and financials
are expected to turn in the best year-over-year earnings
improvement this quarter. Still, that won't likely not be enough to
pull the S&P 500 out of an expected earnings decline compared
with last year's first quarter because of huge profit declines in
the energy sector.
The anticipated rise in profits for the financial sector,
however, falls heavily on Bank of America (BAC). Earnings for the
financial sector are expected to improve by 8.2%. If you take Bank
of America out of the picture, that expected improvement falls down
to a 0.8% improvement, according to John Butters, senior earnings
analyst at FactSet.
Bank of America is expected to report first-quarter earnings of
29 cents a share on revenue of $21.65 billion, compared with last
year's loss of 5 cents a share due to a $6 billion, or 40 cents a
share, legal charge
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/b-of-a-earnings-hurt-by-6-billion-legal-charge-2014-04-16)
in the same period.
In broader earnings, expect the strong dollar to be blamed in
earnings conference calls. The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), which
tracks the dollar against six other major currencies, gained 9%
over the first quarter alone.
In a wrap of some 23 earnings calls so far, 70% of the companies
mentioned the strong dollar as a negative, according to
Butters.
More than 30 companies on the S&P 500, along with seven Dow
components, report this week:
Notable companies reporting earnings this week
Report date Company/Ticker (FactSet EPS / revenue estimate)
Mon., April 13 Pep Boys US:PBY (0c / $506.8 million)
Tues., April 14 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. US:JPM ($1.39 / $24.55 billion)Wells Fargo & Co. US:WFC (98 cents / $21.27 billion)Johnson & Johnson Inc. US:JNJ ($1.53 / $17.34 billion)Intel Corp. US:INTC (41 cents / $12.82 billion)CSX Corp. US:CSX (45 cents / $3.03 billion)
Weds., April 15 Bank of America (29 cents / $21.65 billion)Netflix Inc. US:NFLX (63 cents / $1.57 billion)Charles Schwab Corp. US:SCHW (24 cents / $1.55 billion)U.S. Bancorp. US:USB (76 cents / $4.95 billion)PNC Financial Services Group Inc. US:PNC ($1.73 / $3.75 billion)
Thurs., April 16 Goldman Sachs Group Inc. US:GS ($4.21 / $9.33 billion)American Express Co. US:AXP ($1.36 / $8.19 billion)Citigroup Inc. US:C ($1.39 / $19.85 billion)BlackRock Inc. US:BLK ($4.52 / $2.79 billion) UnitedHealth Group Inc. US:UNH ($1.35 / $34.6 billion)
Fri., April 17 General Electric Co. US:GE (30 cents / $34.2 billion)Comerica Inc. US:CMA (73 cents / $627.4 million)Reynolds American Inc. US:RAI (79 cents / $1.98 billion)Honeywell International Inc. US:HON ($1.40 / $9.48 billion)
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