U.S. Stocks, ETFs Stumble Ahead of Q4 Financial Earnings Report

Major banks including J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) are expected to report earnings Friday. Several analysts argued that earnings projects are elevated for banks than in several quarters, making it harder for them to beat expectations.

Nevertheless, observers believe U.S. companies to reveal improved earnings as they gain momentum built upon strengthening third quarter results.

“If the global economy is doing better, and the U.S. economy is doing better, we could see meaningful upside on earnings surprises,” Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Robert W. Baird & Co., told the WSJ.

Nevertheless, traders are still hedging their bets. For example, the recently launched Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bear 1x Shares ETF (NYSEArca: SPDN), which take a simple inverse or -100% daily performance of the S&P 500 index, is experiencing greater activity.

“We are getting more creates in the S&P 500 inverse ETF as we witness more moves in hedging,” Andy O’Rourke, Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer, told ETF Trends in a call.

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