Favorable earnings fail to spark market rally

Markets started the day with excellent earnings reports including heavyweights like Caterpillar (CAT), Dow stock, & Blackrock (BLK). But enthusiasm from those earnings did not bring higher markets. Dow fell 73, decliners over advancers 3-1 & NAZ dropped 19. The Financial Index was weak.


S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX

Value 204.69

Change -1.00

% Change -0.5%

MLPs continue strong as earnings/distributions announcements come out. The index slipped a fraction, still in the 263s. Its 12 month graph is shown to show how far back MLPs have come. The Dow Jones REIT Index was off 3. Junk bond funds remain strong (it's difficult to imagine how long their strength can last). Treasuries rose, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond fell 6 basis to 3.33%. After touching 80, oil is back in the 78s while gold is 1056.

Alerian MLP Index --- 1 year




Dow Jones REIT Index --- 1 year




Blackrock (BLK) had great earnings while Caterpillar (CAT) & Coca Cola (K) had good & mediocre earnings respectively. BLK was up 4½, CAT rose 2 to 60 (a new recent high) while KO lost 1.

BlackRock Net Rises 46% as Rally Drives Fund Sales

• Coca-Cola 3rd-quarter profit risess slightly- AP
• Caterpillar 3Q profit drops 53 pct on weaker sales- AP

Blackrock --- 1 year




Caterpillar --- 1 year




Coca Cola --- 1 year




I imagined today's headline would be "Markets Gone Wild!" but they didn't. The earnings news from Apple (AAPL) last night, BLK & CAT sounded great, but no follow thru. So-so housing data for Sep was stronger. Maybe a sense of reality is returning to the markets as Dow is having a tougher time breaking thru 10K in a meaningful way.

Dow Jones Industrials --- 1 year