First, there are dozens of earnings on Tuesday, including Dow components like Caterpillar, Dupont, 3M, and McDonald’s. There are also reports from Coca-Cola, Eli Lily, AT&T, Chipotle and dozens of others.
According to Thomson Reuters, 77 percent of the S&P 500 companies that have reported already have beaten earnings per share estimates. Profit growth for the quarter is also tracking at about 11 percent, the best quarter since 2011.
“You could make a case for 90 percent of the earnings being important. That’s the problem with a busy day and a busy week. In and of themselves, they’re all important. It definitely shifts our focus away from Friday’s budget deadline and Wednesday’s announcement out of the White House on its version of tax reform,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities. He said earnings could also keep the focus off of geopolitical worries, like North Korea, unless there is some new action Tuesday.
Confidence
Another big event for markets Tuesday is economic data, particularly consumer confidence. Confidence has been strong, and analysts look at it as a leading indicator for stocks. Economists, however expect it to slip slightly to 122 from 125. Confidence is also a ‘soft indicator’ and those have been performing better than some of the ‘hard’ data, like retail sales.
