Stocks Face Brutal Earnings Season With All Eyes on Apple, Investors Say
Banks including JPMorgan report this week, but investors focus on the iPhone maker as bellwether of global conditions.
Shoppers at the Apple Fifth Avenue store in New York.
Photographer: Jeenah Moon/BloombergInvestors expect this earnings season to pummel stocks further and will watch Apple Inc. in particular as a bellwether of global economic conditions.
More than 60% of the 724 respondents to the latest MLIV Pulse survey say this earnings season will push the S&P 500 Index lower. That means no end in sight to the dismal run for stocks, after a tumble Friday decisively dashed hopes that the eye-popping two-day rally early last week would be the start of something bigger. About half of poll participants also expect equity valuations to pull back even further from their average of the past decade.