With the “earnings season” underway, the Lancer Student Investment Fund (LSIF) is watching these reports very carefully.
One of the main indicators of whether the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 is going to continue to hit new all-time highs depends highly on companies either beating or missing their projected earnings estimates.
Negative inflation data leading to a major sell- off in gold caused the S&P 500 to have its worst day since last November, dropping almost 2 percent. One of the biggest “losers” during this small intraday market pullback was the GLD (most widely followed gold fund), which has been falling in price over the past week and dropped a record 8.8 percent on record volume.
“The market advanced today following the worst trading session in nearly 6 months,” said Scott Laabs, co-manager of the LSIF.
Two major companies (both owned by the LSIF), Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson, reported better than expected first quarter earnings which improved the outlook on first quarter results. This is a great indicator that this bull market will continue to rise over the next few months of the second quarter.”
The Lancer Student Investment Fund recently sent seven students to New York City for the Global Asset Management Conference in which they listened to several CEOs and CFOs on Wall Street speak about the economy and market outlook.
“After listening to Guy Adami, a CNBC Fast Money contributor, as well as doing research on my own, I would reiterate our Buy rating on Gilead Sciences Inc. which we own in our portfolio,” added Aaron Taylor, health care sector manager.
“Citigroup reported a 30 percent jump in first- quarter net income to $3.8 billion or $1.23 a share, and a 6 percent increase in revenue to $20.5 billion,” Chad Chandler, financial sector analyst, said. “These increases were fueled by strength in investment banking. This is very exciting news on
Wall Street and for the financial sector. Citigroup remains a hot stock and is in an excellent growth position.”
The LSIF was honored to have Interim President Marge Connelly speak to the organization in regards to her experience in the field of Finance. Connelly worked at such prestigious companies as Capital One and Barclays, and was able to give the LSIF insight on the financial services industry.
“When looking for a job, find an industry that is growing and become the best at what you do,” said Connelly. Connelly has followed the LSIF and added, “I have been extremely impressed with the performance of the Lancer Student Investment Fund for years now.”
The Lancer Student Investment Fund will meet for the last time this semester next Tuesday, April 23 at 6 p.m. in Hiner G-16.
Please contact Scott Laabs at douglas.laabs@live. longwood.edu if you are interested in becoming a part of the LSIF.
