Also, refinancing activity is very high right now. As housing prices have increased, thats allowed more people to qualify to refinance their loans. Reporter but Goldman Sachs is a different story. It deals almost exclusively with institutions, not consumers. Its Fourth Quarter Earnings Growth came from a surge in Investment Banking revenues thanks to gains in stock and bond underwriting. Goldman earned 5. 60 a share in the period, compared to a 1. 84 a year ago. That was also better than expected. Big banks arent the only financials expected to do well in the Fourth Quarter. The Financial Sector as a whole is expected to post an earnings gain of 11. 5 , making it the best performing group for the Fourth Quarter. But that doesnt necessarily mean nows a good time to buy most big bank stocks. Theres a couple names out there in the regionals that look attractive. But for the most part, most of the companies are trading very close to our fair value. Reporter theres another trend to watch fo
Increased, thats allowed more people to qualify to refinance their loans. Reporter but Goldman Sachs is a different story. It deals almost exclusively with institutions, not consumers. Its Fourth Quarter Earnings Growth came from a surge in Investment Banking revenues thanks to gains in stock and bond underwriting. Goldman earned 5. 60 a share in the period, compared to a 1. 84 a year ago. That was also better than expected. Big banks arent the only financials expected to do well in the Fourth Quarter. The Financial Sector as a whole is expected to post an earnings gain of 11. 5 , making it the best performing group for the Fourth Quarter. But that doesnt necessarily mean nows a good time to buy most big bank stocks. Theres a couple names out there in the regionals that look attractive. But for the most part, most of the companies are trading very close to our fair value. Reporter theres another trend to watch for this earnings season cost cutting. Banks have been cutting workers and c
Tom brian, before we talk about that forecast, what do you make of the fiscal first quarter. Some pretty big numbers reported. Some big numbers, but a little lighter than consensus, around 48 million iphone units, 22 million ipad units, a little less than consensus, and a little disappointing to investors, and certainly when you have the forecast that was light on top of it, it makes for a disappointing quarter. Tom i can already hear those apple shareholders saying financial expectations are just impossible for apple to exceed. Theyre so high. What do you say to them . Well, i think investors may have caught up to apples stunning growth, but perhaps the law of large numbers, i think growth is getting increasingly harder to achieve. I think the easy growth has already happened in the iphone in developed markets like the u. S. The next wave of growth will come from emerging markets, from china and lowerpriced phones. So apple may have a harder time getting that sort of growth. Tom i thi
So a scary headline number isnt as bad as it seems when you look underneath. Reporter and thats what economists say Federal Reserve policy makers did. After studying the economy for two days, chairman ben bernanke and his colleagues issued what most called a no news statement. The fed says it will keep Interest Rates near zero and plans to keep buying bonds in order to keep Interest Rates low. Todays g. D. P. Report didnt change that plan. What the fed is trying to do is generate stronger labor Market Growth and labor Market Performance and we dont really have any data on that yet. So we dont have the employment report yet, so we think it is just status quo for the fed at this time. Reporter well, almost status quo. The fed continues to watch congress closely for clues about whether deep, automatic federal spending cuts will take effect in a month or congress will decide to close down parts of the government as republicans and democrats battle over the budget. I think the fed is very c
So a scary headline number isnt as bad as it seems when you look underneath. Reporter and thats what economists say Federal Reserve policy makers did. After studying the economy for two days, chairman ben bernanke and his colleagues issued what most called a no news statement. The fed says it will keep Interest Rates near zero and plans to keep buying bonds in order to keep Interest Rates low. Todays g. D. P. Report didnt change that plan. What the fed is trying to do is generate stronger labor Market Growth and labor Market Performance and we dont really have any data on that yet. So we dont have the employment report yet, so we think it is just status quo for the fed at this time. Reporter well, almost status quo. The fed continues to watch congress closely for clues about whether deep, automatic federal spending cuts will take effect in a month or congress will decide to close down parts of the government as republicans and democrats battle over the budget. I think the fed is very c