No one’s escaping bad earnings
TEXT OF STORY
Scott Jagow: But that is the big question: Is another bank about to fall? Today, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs report their earnings for last quarter. Investors seem to be worried about Lehman. Its stock fell 19 percent yesterday. Alisa Roth has more on what to expect from these profit reports.
Alisa Roth: Like many Wall Streeters, Al Goldman thinks the banking sector’s going to be just fine over the long run, thank you very much. He’s a market strategist for AG Edwards. And he seems to think only an idiot — or a reporter — would ask about the short-term prospects.
Al Goldman: Almost all earnings reports from the financial sector, and particularly the banks, are going to be lousy. And everybody with a pulse knows that.
He and others guess nobody’s going to escape completely.
Peter Dunay is an analyst with Meridian Equity Partners in New York. He says that larger outfits like Goldman Sachs will probably have an easier time of it.
Peter Dunay: The smaller ones, as you’re seeing in Bear Stearns, you know are more likely not to survive. And that adds just more and more pressure to the overall sector on how bad the write-downs are and who it’s going to take with it.
Lehman Brothers may fit into that latter category. It’s already suffering from the market chatter. Made worse by rumors of an e-mail from a big Asian bank telling staff not to trade with Lehman.
In New York, I’m Alisa Roth for Marketplace.
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