Business

Now that Q4 EPS is almost in the history books with 494 S&P500 companies reporting, we can look at the numbers: blended 4Q EPS is $29.49 (-2.9% y/y) with GAAP EPS of $19.92. As DB admits, a 67% GAAP-to-non GAAP ratio is well below the normal ~90% ex. recessions, exacerbated by asset impairments and restructuring costs especially at Energy.

This is how DB shows this almost unprecedented divergence between GAAP and non-GAAP "earnings":

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

Since stock markets are ultimately underpinned by corporate profits, let's ask: What factors could crush profits in 2016?

'Efficient' markets at their very best once again. Following a 19% spike overnight, analysts and traders alike are stunned by "the departure from fundamentals" as "the iron ore and steel markets have gone berserk." On the heels of home price surges, sent soaring after government suggestions that they will support growth, "investors are expecting further monetary easing by the Chinese government to boost steel demand," but as Bloomberg notes there has been no "corresponding increase in physical orders."

On Thursday, after 7 years of having an overweight or at least neutral stance on equities, JPM "for the first time this cycle" went underweight stocks. This is what JPM's Jan Loeys said:

In the aftermath of last week's disappointing G-20 Shanghai summit, there was much riding on this weekend's start of the China's People's Congress, and specifically what if any stimulus announcement Beijing will make; sadly for stimulus addicts China mostly disappointed and after the unimaginative scope of growth proposals, it is hardly surprising that European stocks and US equity futures have taken a leg lower, even if Chinese stocks rose and certain commodities such as Iron Ore soared overnight on hopes China will either "rationalize" capacity or at least build some more roads to nowhere