Google Trounces Estimates, Shuffles Its Board

The market is higher in early trading, although the Nasdaq is lagging again, and looking like it might give up some of its early gains.

Google (GOOG) reported very strong earnings last night, above expectations, but also announced that CEO Eric Schmidt was move to the Chairman role and Larry Page would assume the CEO role. Not sure if that is the problem, but the stock opened nicely higher this morning and has since retraced all of its early gains. Not inspiring price action.

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) also reported a blowout quarter, and its stock is 14% higher. GE was also very solid, and enjoying a nice 5.5% pop. Bank of America (BAC) was a little light, and the stock is down 2% so far.

Asian markets were mixed overnight, with China bouncing but most other countries lower. The dollar is weak again today, but commodities are mixed. Cotton futures were limit up this morning, but gold prices are down near $1339 and oil prices are flat around $89.50.

The 10-year yield is lower to 3.42%; and the volatility index was lower this morning but is climbing back towards positive territory.

Trading comment: The market opened sharply lower yesterday, but once again was "saved" and rallied into the close. That made for another small decline overall. This morning, the action is kind of the reverse, where the market opened higher and has been fading ever since. Most leading growth stocks corrected hard yesterday and are not showing much of a bounce today. This tells me that the correction likely has further to go, probably both in terms of time as well as price.

The market is set to have its first down week since November. Pretty surprising. And earnings season remains in high gear next week. Rest up.

long BAC, GOOG, VIX