Today's Market -- January 28, 2016

Wow, what a day for the market -- Thursday, January 28, 2016. These were the companies I was interested in:

• Baker Hughes, a whopping $2.35/share loss vs forecast 10-cent loss; obviously special factors weigh; shares rise;
• Carbo Ceramics, a loss of 25 cents/share vs a loss of 83 cents forecast; had recently suspended dividend;
• EPD, earnings of 35 cents vs forecast of 35 cents; in-line or beats by a penny;
• Ford Motor Co, huge beat; at 58 cents beat forecast of 51 cents; Ford profit triggers record $9,300 bonuses for UAW workers;
• Helmerich and Payne, crushes estimate; loss 5 cents vs Zacks consensus of 8 cents;
• Valero, huge beat; beats by 31 cents; comes in at $1.79 vs $1.45 forecast;
• Visa, barely beats at 69 cents vs forecast of 68 cents, not much change in shares;
• Amazon, shares plunge almost 15% after hours; earnings at $1.00 vs $1.58 forecast;
• Microsoft, shares up on earnings report of 78 cents earnings vs forecast 72 cents; 

What's the takeaway from all these reports?

1. The tea leaves suggest that in the oil and gas industry we can finally hit the re-set button and move on.

• where are all the bankruptcies?
• where are all the mergers?
• Russia and KSA apparently talking about curtailing production; really?
• the Bakken down to 46 active rigs; how low will they go?

2. Sometime ago, a Brit analyst/writer suggested American investors were greedy. Years ago, when we were stationed in England, I called a broker in London to open a trading account. He told me that their company already had about as much business as they wanted and did not want to add any new accounts. True story. I was reminded of that when I saw the 15% drop in Amazon's share price when it reported earnings of a dollar vs a forecast of $1.60 or thereabouts. The big story was not that Amazon missed by 40- 60%; the big story was the Amazon actually showed a profit, something I think it has done on only three times before. I don't own any shares in Amazon and doubt I ever will but I love the company. I don't think Bezos is concerned. There is no company that comes close to what it does. Americans are simply too greedy. Yes, I love Amazon -- it always delivers.

3. Microsoft is a pleasant surprise. I don't own shares in Microsoft and never will. But it is surprising, and pleasantly surprising, that Microsoft appears to be able to "re-invent" itself. I don't care for Microsoft, but if Microsoft can re-invent itself, so can others.

4. Ford's results speak for themselves.

Creekside