US markets end lower ahead of earnings season
CNBC’s Margaret Brennan – Traders reigned in bets ahead of the kick off of earnings season. On Tuesday the Dow and the Nasdaq fell for a second straight day; the Dow down 186-points, the Nasdaq lower by 45-points. The shares of RIM and Cisco came under heavy selling pressure due to profit taking.
Alcoa shares did fall ahead of their earnings report and the worries were well-founded, Alcoa posted a loss of 59 cents per share that was wider than estimates. It says that it is a historic drop in Aluminium prices and demand, revenues though did beat the estimates.
We saw strong earnings report from the retail sector. Bed, Bath & Beyond shares are jumping after hours on word that Q1 profits were 11 cents more than expected. This on the same day the government reported that the consumer cut back on borrowing in the month of February. Consumer credit decrease by 3.5% not just cutting back – but also the pullback in consumer credit is a matter of it just being so hard to borrow money right now.