- Commentary -

January 11, 2010 (FinancialWire) (By Genevieve Hawkins) — Wall Street hit fresh highs for the New Year last week, and now investors will eye first earnings from Alcoa (NYSE: AA) and others to size up the damage inflicted by the Great Recession.

Last week the Dow rose 1.8%, while the S&P 500 shot up 2.7% and the Nasdaq climbed 2.0% as investors gained confidence in the economic recovery. The good times may roll for the short term, provided earnings from the first companies reporting go up as expected.

For the coming week investors will be watchful of the trickle of fourth quarter and full year earnings reports set to come in from Intel, JPMorgan, and others. Earnings should mostly show a rebound from 2008’s abysmal fourth quarter, but investors will have set the bar higher this time around. Now that the recession is officially over, market traders would like proof that corporations are expanding again. Fourth quarter earnings should look good but will likely also leave investors unsure about the extent of the economic recovery. Look for another winning week on Wall Street.

[Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=genevieve+hawkins to see more commentaries by Genevieve Hawkins.]

The FirstAlert(tm) Economics Calendar lists Treasury auctions 3&6-month bills (11 a.m.), Treasury auctions 10-year TIPS (1 p.m.).

The FirstAlert(tm) Events Calendar showcases ALGN, HGSI, MDT, BMRN at JPMorgan Healthcare Conference; ASML at SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium; BWLD, BKE, FOSL, FUQI at Cowen and Company Consumer Conference; SI at Commerzbank German Investment Seminar; ZOOM, MSON, NANO, SYNO at Sidoti & Company Micro Cap Conference.

FirstAlert(tm) Website of the Day: http://www.mint.com/

Quote of the Day: “How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young … or slender.” William James

Today is: Albanaian Republic Day, National Clean Off Your Desk Day.

Happy Birthday: Alexander Hamilton, William James, Albert Hofmann, Carroll Shelby, Grant Tinker, Rod Taylor, Naomi Judd, Ben Crenshaw, Lee Ritenour, Stanley Tucci, Mary J. Blige, Amanda Peet.

Today in History: William Herschel discovered Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus, in 1787. Alabama seceded from the United States in 1861. Total solar eclipse blackensed the sky of San Francisco in 1880. Grand Canyon National Monument was created in 1908. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California in 1935. The first recorded case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California, occurred in 1949. United States Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry first reported that smoking may be hazardous to health in 1964. The world’s first surviving set of sextuplets were born to Susan Rosenkowitz in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1974. Paul Simon was the first major artist to tour South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott in 1992.

[FirstAlert(tm) was created by Gayle Essary, founder of Investrend Communications, Inc., parent of Investrend Information. The opinions expressed in FirstAlert(tm) do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Investrend.]

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