In late September stocks appeared to be heading to new 52 week and multi-year lows. But as this market has demonstrated its resilience during this six year bull run, the four major averages found support near its previous lows in late August and have bounced nearly 10%. This most recent market action have yet again muzzled the bear pundits and revived the bulls hopes for a possible year-end rally. For the week the Dow Jones Industrial Average (chart) closed modestly higher up 131.48 points, the Nasdaq (chart) had a weekly gain of 56.22 points, the S&P 500 (chart) finished up 18.22 points and the small-cap Russell 2000 (chart) bucked the uptrend falling slightly by 3.05 points.

So could there be a year-end rally in the cards? I think the answer to that question will come forward as we are now kicking into high gear with Q3 earnings reporting season. Already this past week we heard from the likes of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and international conglomerate General Electric (NYSE: GE) who all provided results investors could cheer about. Each one of these companies notched impressive gains on the week not only helping the key indices, but also instilling confidence with investors. However, and as we all know, earnings reporting season can be volatile and we are at just at the starting gate.

Next week we will get quarterly results from technology giant Broadcom (NasdaqGS:BRCM), oil and gas equipment services behemoth Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK), Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG), Yahoo (NasdaqGS: YHOO), biotech giant Biogen (NasdaqGS: BIIB), Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), General Motors (NYSE: GM), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS), Amazon.com Inc. (NasdaqGS: AMZN), E*Trade Financial Corp. (NasdaqGS: ETFC), basic materials giant Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX), Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT) and American Airlines Group Inc. (NasdaqGS: AAL) just to name a few.

These are only a handful of companies scheduled to report next week with hundreds more to follow in the coming weeks. That said, both Paula and I will continue to remain patient and wait until after earnings reporting season before we consider any new market strategies.

Good luck to all 🙂

~George