“Those tend to be companies who manage earnings a little better, the fact they have missed perhaps isn’t a very good indication,” Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management, told Reuters. “There is some nervousness out there about the economy, geopolitical issues and general unpredictability as well.”
The initial stumble out of the opening gates of the current earnings season is particularly worrying as investors are concerned about market valuations after a strong post-election rally based on expectations of pro-growth policies under the Trump administration.
“The market’s taken a bit of a pause lately, and part of that has to do with markets in the U.S. being at the high end of valuations,” Mark Watkins, regional investment strategist at the Private Client Group at U.S. Bank, told the Wall Street Journal. “If we see earnings that miss or are below expectations, that could be a warning sign.”
Meanwhile, safe-havens and more conservative bets continued to attract greater interest, with gold bullion strengthening and U.S. Treasury yields rising, ahead of crucial presidential elections in France, bubbling tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, and early calls for elections in Britain.
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