Another Dull Day?

It doesn’t look good for technology this morning with Alcatel-Lucent forecasting a drop in their fourth quarter earnings. Texas Instruments posted earnings that beat forecasts but also guided lower for the next quarter.

Oil was also higher crossing $53 to trade at $53.35, largely based on the recent forecast for colder weather in the northeast and the new OPEC quotas taking effect. I don’t expect the price of crude to remain above $50 because demand has fallen and supply has risen. There are also quite a few non OPEC countries supplying oil that are not subject to the OPEC quotas and they show no signs of reducing production.

GAP’s CEO Paul Pressler resigned after he had been unable to halt the slide in sales. GAP’s chairman will take over as CEO until a suitable replacement can be found.

DuPont and United Technologies both reported earnings that beat the street. At this point we can expect the broader market to be flat to slightly higher.

We need a couple of major companies to post some stellar earnings to kick start the rally that we saw before Christmas. Maybe people are waiting until after G.W.’s State of the Union address to decide whether they’re buying or not. God I feel sorry for those poor people down south having to put up with another two more years of Bush. What an embarrassment and pathetic president he turned out to be. But then again the Americans did elect him.