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Although Citigroup announced a bigger than expected loss of $1.02 per share, when analysts expected C to lose 95 cents, their shares climed more than 8% in the pre-market trading. Write-downs reached over $15 billion, generating the loss.

The motive of this share raise could be that revenue exceeded their estimates. We are believers that the worst is still to come, but the inmense euphoria and bullish investors give reasons to think that the worst could be behind. A lot of uncertainty is my actual feeling in this market. The fact that C was downgraded by Moody´s and Fitch seems to have no consequences in a blind bullish market.

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After yesterday´s big rally, the US stock index futures declined as the reporting for the day has led investors down; Merrill Lynch, Pfizer and Nokia all made earning announcements below analysts´expectations.

Pfizer stock analysis

Pfizer (PFE), the world´s largest drugmaker, retreated after competition from generic medicines cut into revenue. The company earned 41 cents per share, or $2.8 billions, than was beneath the expert´s forectast of 66 cents a share.

The profit drop of 18% for its first quarter weighed on Pfizer´s stock in premarket trading, sending their shares 4% down to 20.25 dollars.

The cholesterol drug Lipitor will lose patent protection in 2010, opening the floodgates for cheaper generic versions. the outlook does not look good at all.

Merrill Lynch stock analysis 

Merrill, posted its third consecutive quarterly loss, after more than $6 billions write-downs pushed it to a bigger loss than expected. Their chief excecutive, John Thain, also cautioned that things were unlikely to improve in the next couple of quarters, giving a tough forecast.

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Google (ticker: GOOG), that peaked in last November at $747.24, has suffered from the recession fears and the doubleclick deal incredibly; their stock price lost 40% of its value in just 5 months! Besides, on April 17, they will present their earnings after market close and this could be vital for it´s future direction.

In the following chart we can see Google´s stock price evolution:

We can clearly see that Google bottomed on March (or is it a temporary bottom?), and that might be the buy signal investors were waiting for. Some believe that its current price of $455.03 is quite an attractive value for a medium term investment. In this post we will study the company and make our unbiased recommendation. Let´s have a company overview before beginning the analysis.

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US stocks rallied today as upbeat results from technology bellwether Intel Corp and JP Morgan helped to lift sentiment. A slump in the dollar, which hit another record low against the euro following high inflation numbers in Europe, also provided a lift to commodities and their related stocks.

All ten economic sectors posted a gain, motivated by the fact that the announced earnings were better than feared.

After the market closed today, IBM posted its quartely profits that exceeded the $1.45 per share predicted by analysts; the company had a 1Q profit of $1.65 per share. They also increased  2008 outlook and are very optimistic about the future.

In other news, Sallie Mae lost $104 million in the 1Q and the oil futures jump to record over $115 on supply concerns.

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Although JP Morgan Chase´s profits dropped 50% in the 1Q,  the 68 cents gain per share, was enough to beat the estimate of 64 cents per share made by analysts.

The Coca-Cola Company (KO) also upbeat earnings; KO climed to a profit of 64 cents per share, very superior to the 4 cents per share predicted by analysts. The raise was mainly caused by larger sales in Latin America and Russia.

INTC lowered its 1Q earnings prediction a week ago, to a revenue of $9.63 billion. But a $9.67 billion in sales, just over the consensus, made the stock raise in the after-hours market more than 7,50%, as investors speculated a better future for Intel.

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Many analysts believe that the source of the economic problems in the US markets could be solved with a possitive earning surprise of the financial sector, that is mostly responsible for this recession.

That´s why, since tommorrow, April 16, the future trend of the economy will be starting to appear since big financial companies will start revealing its first quarter results.

In order to keep a tight control of these events, we will create a calendar for the financial sector.

 April 16:

• JP Morgan
• Wells Fargo Corp

April 17:

• Bank of New York Mellon Corp
• Capital One Corp
• ETrade
• Merrill Lynch
• Prudencial Plc

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JNJ is the main talk of today´s premarket session as they reported better than expected figures. Lets see today´s headlines: 

• Johnson & Johnson (ticker: JNJ), the world´s largest health-product maker, said that their earnings increased 40%, basically because of the rising sales in Tylenol pain medicine and Listerine mouthwash. The 1Q net income rose to $3.6 billion, or $1.26 a share, beeting the $1.20 per share estimated in a survey of 17 analysts. This news could be seen as a sign that the economy is not as bad as some expects.
• US foreclosures jump 57% and bank repossessions more than doubled in March as adjustable mortgages increased.
• Delta to buy Northwest for $3,63 billion, creating the world´s biggest airline. This could generate a potential deal between United and Continental airlines. The deal has been made but they are waiting for the antitrust approval by the regulators.
• Wachovia to raise $7 billion in capital, after posting the 1Q loss. This loss was driven by massive write-downs and new provisions against credit losses. The new capital can be seen as a possitive thing but they have an important dilutive consequence in Wachovia´s stocks.
• Blockbuster bids for Circuit City (CC). They offered between $6 and $8 per share in a February letter to CC.