U.S. stocks rallied on Election Day Tuesday, ostensibly in anticipation of a “surprise” Romney win. But on Wednesday, after huge dollars were spent on rancorous campaigns and attack ads that only further deepened the divide in our country, we woke up to find ourselves with the same President and divided Congress that previously failed to address the looming Fiscal Cliff.

The market remains sensitive to weak forward outlooks and continues to punish those stocks that miss on revenues and beat on earnings. Today, ESRX, Z, and BSFT bore the brunt of that attitude, down -14%, -21%, and -11% respectively after-hours.

But not all is morose. EOG and CVI delivered great earnings reports and raised their forward outlooks, and the market responded positively, though not in as dramatic a fashion as the disappointers.

I was supposed to be in New York City this week, but Sandy the super storm had other ideas. Some writers are suggesting that since the storm has passed, we can all start getting back to business. But of course, some densely-populated areas In New York and New Jersey have been so devastated that normalcy is a long ways off.

This could prove to be one the most interesting market weeks of the year, assuming the market ever opens.  Talk about uncertainty!  We can add “Frankenstorm” to the litany of other uncertainties such as the election and its impact on a functional Congress and the ongoing concerns in Europe, Middle East, China, and Japan.

This could prove to be one the most interesting market weeks of the year, assuming the market ever opens.  Talk about uncertainty!  Add Frankenstorm to the litany of other uncertainties such as the election and its impact on a functional Congress, Europe, Middle East, China, and Japan.

Whoa, big fella. That’s what the newly vocal bears had to say to the overly aggressive bulls, as a slew of weak earnings reports put a damper on the party. Last week, it seemed that stocks were determined to rally even without traditional leadership from the Technology sector.

That’s been hard to figure lately.  Uncertainty has not eased.  Not in Europe.  Not in the Middle East. Not in China or Japan. Not in the U.S., with a dead-heat election battle and unknown future Congressional dynamics.  Companies overall continue to beat earnings, mostly, and miss on revenues.  Now there is a certainty: earnings cannot keep going up if revenues keep going down.

Five years ago this month, the S&P 500 hit all-time high of 1576. It closed Wednesday at 1461. Can the market make a run at that all-time high? Well, the biggest threat at the moment to bullish sentiment is the Fiscal Cliff, but both presidential candidates have a plan for dealing with it, and Congress is unlikely to want to take the fall for defying the new President and sending the country back into recession.

The coming week should reduce uncertainty, at least slightly, since we get a bevy of new economic data and 15% of the S&P 500 reports.  And maybe Spain will decide whether or not it needs help.  Furthermore, we will have the next-to-last Presidential debate tomorrow night. 

As earnings season gets underway, it has become clear that there is a disconnect between the bull market in stocks and the ability of the companies behind those stocks to generate any revenue growth in a weak global economy. Although U.S. companies have shown eleven consecutive quarters of year-over-year earnings growth, Wall Street analysts have continued to slash forward earnings estimates, and indeed it is reflected in Sabrient’s SectorCast model.