Jim Awad Earnings Quotations

Wal-Mart got the traffic, but not the margins, and that will raise questions about fourth-quarter earnings for retail in particular and the consumer sector in general. That's giving you some early caution.

You had good earnings out of Pfizer, good earnings out of Merrill Lynch , several dividend increases and eBay shares that have performed better than expected. It's creating a transitory early rally as it's still too early to say whether it will hold.

As we roll into the earnings reporting season, you're getting a little bit of caution.

The current earnings and the forward-looking guidance, in general, have not met expectations among a lot of companies.

The market is caught between good quarterly reports, such as the one from Disney, and the reality of company guidance for future earnings that is far from stellar.