The summary of the last year will come at the end of this month with the release of the fourth quarter GDP, expected to drop by at least 5% in annualised terms. But before this happens, markets are focused on another 4th quarter story – earning reports. Few companies has already posted their results, but the season in fact starts this week with a full steam. Today we have Logitech, tomorrow IBM and Johnson & Johnson, on Wednesday United Technologies, on Thursday Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Lockheed Martin and Bank of New York Mellon and finally on Friday GE and Xerox. The impact of these results and the ones coming next week may be much greater than a short term relief after the bailout of Bank of America. Not only stocks are about to react, forex and even commodities will be affected too.

Przemysław Kwiecień