Earnings reports on Tuesday morning were generally good. There was an earnings per share miss from 3M (MMM) , a few revenue misses, and weak guidance from General Electric (GE) and Verizon (VZ) , but nothing too serious.
Stocks opened slightly lower, and there was some chaos after a technical glitch at the New York Stock Exchange caused sharp movement and trading halts in over 80 stocks. We have some unusual looking charts now, like McDonald's (MCD) , which traded as high as $302 and as low as $236.49, but is now down 1% at $266.65.
Investors shook off the distraction, and some dip buyers are stepping up once again. Small caps are leading with a small gain, but breadth is lagging, with around 3,100 gainers to 4,800 decliners. There are only around a dozen stocks trading up more than 10% and no major runners among the earnings reports.
It isn't bad action, but I'm not feeling any great desire to put money to work right now. Many of the small-cap charts have had good moves and are running into some overhead now, and I'm not feeling very optimistic about the ability of the market to keep running on the upcoming earnings reports. I've been a net seller so far and have a very large cash position.
I suspect that there are many other investors positioned like I am, with high cash levels and a desire to buy some favored names on weakness. I'm not feeling any fear of missing out and am confident that there will be some better entry points for my precious cash at a later time.
Microsoft (MSFT) is going to be a market mover when it reports tonight and will help determine the immediate market direction. So far, earnings are not the negative catalyst that some have feared, but it is still very early.
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