How Do They Always Do it??

GS make $3.39 in the first Quarter vs expectations of $1.64. Quite a performance, but that should be no surprise from the acme of Investment Banks, sorry, I mean Bank Holding Companies not Investment Banks. And this is quite key. As Macro Man points out in his blog today, if you look closer at the figures, the month of December was not quite so strong. It was pretty dismal as it happens. However, in the transition from IB to BHC, December actually disappeared into the ether and has NO home in any reporting period. So despite the fact GS lost $2.15 in December, it appears only as an unaudited addendum towards the end of the statement. Nevertheless, I haven’t seen anyone else talk about this and the market continues upward in much the same vein, it hears what it wants to hear.

I don’t mean to sound cycnical and be a boring bear, but surely this is just a wrong ‘un. How can the market ignore this? I can’t help having the feeling that if GS had reported these figures 6 weeks ago, this would have been a big talking point, and the shares would have taken a nose dive…and if the stock crumbles later today, we’ll get some backtrading from the bulls. Either way, this is something to be aware of for when MS, GMAC etc report.

Busy enough macro week ahead. We’ve got PPI and Retail sales today, mortgage apps, CPI and Empire manufacturing tomorrow. Housing starts, building permits and Jobless claims on Thursday and Michigan Confidence number for whatever that’s worth on Friday. Who know what these numbers hold but the estimates have been very close the actuals of late. I’m not sure it really matters anyway, the market has a one way pull at the moment, bulls feeling vindicated, bears feeling confounded and fearful of still being short, the path of least resistance appears up.