As the meat of earnings season begins, it’s worth noting what investors have learned so far. The short version is, apart from a few isolated companies (cough, Netflix, cough), not a whole lot: the projected rise in S&P 500 earnings per share this year stands at 8.9%, compared with 8.1% at end of March, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
But even as expectations toward earnings have improved, the market has struggled, with the S&P 500 SPX down 6% this month so far. So what’s going on?
Well, reserves at the Fed fell by $460 billion last week, which according to Citigroup was the biggest weekly drop ever. So let’s hear what that means from Michael Howell, dubbed the godfather of global liquidity, and the chief executive of CrossBorder Capital, a boutique he formed in 1996 after heading the research teams at Baring Securities and Salomon Brothers. Howell explained to Jack Farley of Blockworks Macro that, by global liquidity as opposed to market liquidity, he means the ability to change investment positions relatively easily.
