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Super Bowl of Earnings, Fed and Employment!

Super Bowl of NFL is just a week away when Patriots would be appearing 9th time since 2001 and Rams will be playing their first since moving to City of Angels! Who would win? It's match up between experience vs youth. Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady (age 41) and head coach Bill Belichick (age 66) have been playing/coaching football before their respective counterparts Rams' quarterback Jared Goff (Age 24 - Cal graduate. Go Bears!) and head coach Sean McVay (Age 33) were even born! In a way it's representation of today's society including corporate world. When it comes to which team I support - I am split. I stayed in New England for one year so would like to see Patriots win. But then Rams is now California team with quarterback from UC Berkeley (my alma mater). So I am just going to enjoy the game and let the best team win! But before we get to Super Bowl Sunday, let's look at this week's Super Bowl of economic events starting with earnings.
This week can easily be called as Super Bowl of earnings when 114 S&P companies are reporting representing maybe close to $4-5 Trillion market cap. The companies span across almost all industries but most important earnings to watch are:

  • Monday: Caterpillar 
  • Tuesday: Apple, AMD, Amgen, Biogen, Pfizer, 3M, Verizon
  • Wednesday: Alibaba, Microsoft, Facebook, AT&T, Tesla, Visa
  • Thursday: Amazon, GE, UPS, Mastercard
  • Friday: Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Merck
These companies are who's who and can really provide where world economy is heading so watch out for their guidance. In addition to these earning reports, there are two critical events:
  • Wednesday: FOMC meeting conclusion and guidance on direction of interest rates. 
  • Friday: Employment report. Due to shutdown (glad it's over for now), the numbers may be little skewed but should show unemployment steady at 3.8%
With so many events, what should one do when it comes to investing in markets? If you take long view, markets are still about 10% below all time high (even after rising nearly 13% since its recent low on Christmas eve). As I wrote in "Third Year is The Best", things will be ok in 2019 and one can tiptoe in the markets depending on his risk/reward profile.
Enjoy the Super Bowl of earnings and actual Super Bowl!
/Shyam


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