Amazon, Facebook, Colgate-Palmolive, Exxon Mobil and Starbucks are all reporting their earnings in the stock market today. Technical analysis on their stock charts combined with news about their earnings would point out profitable trading setups and create trading opportunities. Western Digital is already up 20% in after-hours trading after reporting excellent financial data and beating the earnings-per-share estimates. Although that scenario may not be the case for today’s 5 popular stocks, many traders will discuss these companies by this time tomorrow.
Amazon stock closed at $217.05 per share yesterday. The resistance level that is indicated in the daily chart has proven strong, given the three times AMZN stock failed to penetrate it. RSI sits at 54 showing a balanced market without overbought or oversold conditions and ATR indicator is consolidating signifying the absence of an established trend. However, looking at the monthly Amazon stock chart we find out that the retail company’s shares have trending upwards for a decade now, rising from $5.51 of 2001 up to $245 in last October! The most recent key support level in that time frame is situated at $167. Active True Range indicator is climbing steadily especially since 2007 and RSI is lower than 70, meaning the stock is not yet overbought. Wall Street estimate for today’s earnings is the lowest estimate of the last 7 years (just $0.02). Amazon has managed to beat the estimates of the last 2 quarters by a significant margin though.
Facebook stock has suffered considerable losses since the disastrous IPO. Currently the social network’s stock is trading for $29.34 a share, fluctuating around the slow moving average. Disappointed FB stock traders who may have bought Facebook shares for more than $40 are getting even more worried with the latest Zynga’s earnings release. Zynga missed the consensus EPS on yesterday’s stock market close and is down 40% in after-hours trading! For many investors Zynga, which is operating on Facebook’s platform, correlates with Facebook stock performance. After all Zynga’s IPO price was set at $10 and the expected open today for Zynga stock could be as low as $3!
Colgate-Palmolive stock on the contrary is more alike Amazon stock. CL stock’s strong uptrend has pushed shares’ price to 3-digit territory and technical analysis of the daily chart reveals a resistance level that is going to act as support. Stock market has estimated Colgate-Palmolive earnings with outstanding accuracy in the past and an upset isn’t likely to happen today. Earnings per share have continuously improving over time since 2005 and that is obviously reflected on the Colgate-Palmolive stock charts!
Exxon Mobil stock is consolidating during 2012. Stock market’s EPS estimate for today is found at $1.95, about the same as the last 3 times Exxon Mobil reported its quarterly earnings. The resistance level at the daily XOM stock chart has been too tough to break and that resulted to a short term downtrend in May. The Exxon Mobil stock has since retraced close to the resistance once again and beating the estimates could help shareholders regain their confidence. As long as there’s an ascending triangle in the weekly chart, technical analysis favors long positions.
Finally, Starbucks stock is another S&P 500 stock that is announcing its earnings today. EPS estimate of Q3 2012 is the second highest estimate of Starbucks earnings releases and I assume that the actual EPS will have an immediate impact on the SBUX stock. The market hasn’t been that kind for Starbucks lately, as today shares will begin trading right on the 200-day moving average after a 3-month downtrend from the high at $62. RSI is heading towards the oversold area but hasn’t been there just yet. In case Starbucks reports better results than $0.45 earnings per share, I would expect the moving average to act as support. The round number of $50 is another positive signal for a Starbucks stock trend reversal.
These are just five of the stocks that are announcing their earnings in the stock market today. I’m not planning on trading online either of those stocks, although under certain circumstances that may change.
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