Friday Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets

Good Morning!

Optimism Shines on Schlumberger's Earnings ... IBM's Q2 Earnings Blowout ... Euro Up, Greenback Down ... Google Misses Earnings By a Little ... Merrill Lynch Misses Earnings By a Lot

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TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

Schlumberger Earnings Expected Higher - Seeking Alpha
Both JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have become bullish on the oilfield services corporation in the days leading up to Schlumberger's second quarter earnings announcement.

Schlumberger is the Featured Stock in our TradingMarkets Up or Down Stock Contest. You have until 4 p.m. EST today to tell us whether Schlumberger will be Up or Down on Monday. Click here to register for free for your chance to win $1,000 by correctly guessing the direction of a stock!

Emerging Markets Boost Big Blue - Bloomberg
Continued strong sales from overseas markets helped IBM realize a quarterly profit that was up more than 20%.

Euro Gains on Greenback - Financial Times
Between disappointing U.S. economic data and rumors that sovereign wealth funds were cutting back on their dollar holdings, higher levels for the EUR/USD seems more than likely.

Google: Missed It By That Much - BusinessWeek
Before yesterday, which would you have thought was least likely? A bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Or earnings miss from Google?

Merrill's Massive Earnings Miss - Wall Street Journal
Having to write off more than $9 billion made it all but impossible for Merrill Lynch to meet earnings estimates on Thursday.

For more stories as they happen, go to our Breaking News section.

TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Today

Here are 7 stocks for traders for today from TradingMarkets.com:

• Higher fees for investment banking helped JP Morgan (JPM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) blow away earnings estimates on yesterday, beating expectations by 10 cents. JP Morgan closed up more than 13%.
  

• Microsoft (MSFT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported earnings yesterday after the closing bell, announcing EPS of $0.46 and missing estimates by a penny. The stock had closed up by just under 1% that day.
  
  
• Also reporting earnings after the market closed on Thursday, Google (GOOG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) missed earnings estimates by 11 cents. Google had ended the day slightly lower.
  
  
• Reporting earnings before the bell this morning, Citigroup (C | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is expected to announce a loss of $0.61 per share. Citigroup traded up more than 9% on yesterday's close.
  
  
• IBM (IBM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) blew away earnings estimates Thursday evening after the bell, beating the number by 16 cents. Shares of IBM had edged higher by the close of trading on Thursday.
  
  
• Merrill Lynch (MER | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) missed analyst earnings estimates by a wide margin yesterday, reporting a loss of $4.97 when a loss of $1.91 was expected. Traders had bid MER higher by more than 9% in advance of the earnings announcement.
  
  
• Schlumberger (SLB | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reports earnings this morning before the bell. Analysts are expecting EPS of $1.12.
  

For a list of today's highest PowerRating stocks, click here.

TradingMarkets 5 PowerRatings Stocks for Today

TradingMarkets Making Great Traders

A Strategy for Trading and Investing with Less Stress - TradingMarkets
TradingMarkets Select Contributor A.J. Monte shows you how to keep emotion from clouding your judgment when it comes to buying and selling in the stock market.

What to Make of Sharp Rallies in a Bear Market - TradingMarkets
The S&P 500 and Dow industrials up two days in a row. The Nasdaq up three. What can traders make of sharp moves to the upside in a bear market? Fox Business guest commentator, professional money manager and long-time TradingMarkets contributor Gary Kaltbaum provides a primer for our volatile times.

Price, Time, Momentum and a Short Squeeze - TradingMarkets
Is the bounce to be believed or is the two-day rally in stocks (three in the Nasdaq) just another short squeeze? Kevin Haggerty, former Senior Vice President for Equity Trading at Fidelity Capital Markets, puts the short-term move higher in the proper perspective.

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