{"id":190,"date":"2009-07-22T09:24:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-22T13:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intuitiveinvestor.com\/web\/?p=190"},"modified":"2018-08-23T09:32:01","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T13:32:01","slug":"tons-of-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/2009\/07\/22\/tons-of-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Tons of updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">In an attempt to make the blog more readable, more often I have decided to provide brief updates on business news in a consolidated format. Interspersed will be the big opinion pieces. Hopefully everyone digs it. It should reduce folks having to slog through.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">*****<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Yes, the financial markets have been up 7 days in a row. Yes, numerous earnings reports have been positive. For example&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Apple&#8217;s profit was up 15% and demand for <span id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_0\" class=\"blsp-spelling-error\">iPhones<\/span> and Mac computers was so high that they could not keep up manufacturing-wise.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Apple is a huge tech bellwether. These are very good results and are evidence that consumers will spend money for products where there is a perceived value-add.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Wells Fargo&#8217;s earnings were up 81%, mostly due to its acquisition of <span id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_1\" class=\"blsp-spelling-error\">Wachovia<\/span>, which contributed to profits. However, many are likely to focus on the continued high rate of losses on loans and credit <span id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_2\" class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\">delinquencies<\/span>. Wells has set aside an additional $5.1 billion to cover potential credit losses. Nonetheless, Wells&#8217; results were better than expected. Earnings per share were $0.57 vs. analysts&#8217; expected $0.34.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">The fact that Wells Fargo continues to earn money in the midst of the recession is positive. Those earnings are coming at a time of high unemployment and many personal bankruptcies and belt tightening on the part of consumers. In general, the banking sector seems to be doing well given the givens.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Pfizer&#8217;s net income dropped 19% in the 2<span id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_3\" class=\"blsp-spelling-error\">nd<\/span> quarter. However, they raised their full year earnings guidance for analysts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Lilly, another drug company, saw its quarterly profits up 21%. Lilly also raised its full year earnings forecast.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Not surprisingly, drug companies continue to earn money even in the midst of the recession.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">General Electric is doing well enough that it has submitted a plan for approval to exit the <span id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_4\" class=\"blsp-spelling-error\">FDIC&#8217;s<\/span> Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">*****<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">In general, as I predicted last month, are doing better than expected. This has driven the stock markets higher. However, we are not out of the woods yet. I am closely watching numbers like Wells Fargo&#8217;s credit loss provision numbers. When those numbers begin to stabilize it will be an indication that consumers are not recoiling any longer. Another important number to watch will be automobile sales. Why? Because next to houses the biggest purchase made by consumers using credit is cars. When auto sales rebound then you know that consumers will be back on track.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">I hope each of you has an excellent day!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Jason<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an attempt to make the blog more readable, more often I have decided to provide brief updates on business news in a consolidated format. Interspersed will be the big opinion pieces. Hopefully everyone digs it. It should reduce folks having to slog through. ***** Yes, the financial markets have been up 7 days in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}