Earnings

Many of Wall Street's biggest banks are beating profit expectations as the mortgage business comes back.

Investors have high expectations for Wells Fargo — the first big bank to report fourth-quarter results — after turning in nearly three years of solid earnings.

Corporate earnings season is here again. The first reports arrive today, starting with the aluminum company Alcoa. Analysts are bracing for a slew of lackluster numbers.

Immediately following the fiscal agreement, U.S. stocks had their best week in more than a year last week, but will the optimism last?

Restrictions on the sale of Facebook stock by the social media firm's employees end this week, meaning many of them will be millionaires, not just millionaires "on paper." But the sale will likely drive the stock price down.

Yesterday Google accidentally fired off its earnings announcement three hours ahead of schedule and profits fell quite short of expectations.

Google's quarterly earnings report was mistakenly released while markets were open, instead of after. A 20 percent drop in profits, as prices of online and mobile ads decline, sent shares down immediately.

The financial sector is doing better than last year on a bumper mortgage business and lower loan-loss reserves.

The third-quarter earnings season kicked off today with an ominous warning about global growth from the IMF. A weak consolation for Americans is that we are the only major economy where the IMF expects decent growth in the next year.

Third-quarter earnings season begins this week, with some analysts predicting the first decline in S&P 500 profits since 2009.