US stock futures are higher this morning following Monday’s rally, boosted by a wave of strong earnings reports. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) beat on EPS and revenues this morning, in addition to announcing a dividend hike from 46 cents to 50 cents. However, after a big rally into its report, the stock is basically flat despite the strong numbers.
Also in focus this morning is Citigroup (NYSE:C), as CEO Vikram Pandit announced his immediate resignation. The move comes as a surprise, and Pandit will also exit Citi’s board. Mike Corbat, formerly Citi’s CEO of Europe, Middle East, and Africa, will take over at CEO. John Havens, the CEO of Citi’s Institutional Clients Group, also resigned. C shares are down 3% on the news.
There was slew of major earnings this morning in addition to Goldman, and most of the stock are higher following their reports. UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) is up around 2% after third quarter profits rose 23% and the company lifted full-year earnings estimates to $5.20-5.25 from $4.90-5.
Mattel (NYSE:MAT) is up over 5% this morning after the toy maker saw growth across all segments.
Johnson and Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is up 1% after topping consensus estimates on EPS and revenues.
Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) is basically flat following its report, which came in marginally shy of consensus estimates.
Not all is rosy, though, as PNC Financial (NYSE:PNC) is down 1.5% following a lukewarm report.
At this point, traders are asking if that was the correction. We are not in the business of blind predictions, so we will need to measure the price action closely to get a clear picture. The encouraging sign for bulls is the the pullback held four key support levels in the S&P: 1) the 50-day MA, the prior breakout level, the 25% Fibonacci retracement and the more gradual uptrend from June 4th lows. Yesterday was considered Day #1 of a new rally attempt. Typically you would like to see a follow-through day in the next 4-7 sessions for IBD to go back into confirmed rally.
Disclosure: Scott Redler is long AAPL
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