Author Bio
James Brumley is former stockbroker with a large Wall Street firm, and a former trading analyst for a small, options-based newsletter. After twenty years of professional experience in and around the market, his approach is one that combines fundamentals, sentiment, and common sense. It's also an approach that respects this John Keynes reality: The market isn't always rational.
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Analysts more or less knew
International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) was going to post lackluster fourth-quarter numbers. But they underestimated just how tough things were during the three-month stretch ending in December.
Revenue not only fell 6% year over year, to $20.4 billion, but it fell short of the consensus estimate of $20.7 billion. Earnings, at $2.07 per share, technically topped expectations of $1.79, but it's a dubious win. Profits were still down from the year-earlier figure of $4.71 per share. Despite the company's relatively rosy outlook for the year now underway, the market saw the glass as half-empty. IBM stock took a 10% tumble, moving back within reach of multiyear lows reached in March of last year.