Earnings Anticipation and an Iowa Showdown: Saturday US Briefing

Nothing like a three-day weekend to help take the sting off Dry January. Unless, of course, you’re trapped in your house due to the raging weather.

Why not use your housebound day to review your investments? Microsoft overtook Apple to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company for the first time in more than two years. The S&P 500 Index added 1.8% this week, more than eliminating this year’s early decline. It will be interesting to see how earnings season plays out over the next few weeks. Analysts project that S&P 500 members will see fourth-quarter profits grow 1.1% on average from a year earlier, which would be the smallest positive figure since before the pandemic, data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence show.