US corporate earnings will be key trigger: Solaris

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Tim Ghriskey, CIO, Solaris Asset Management spoke about the US market and his outlook for the upcoming earnings season.

Below is the edited transcript of his interview to CNBC-TV18. Q: What is your view of the markets today given that Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) did surprise on the bottomline?
A: The numbers from ALCOA are good but the focus in this earnings period will be more on revenues and revenues were weak. ALCOA is trading up slightly because they were pretty optimistic on a second quarter in terms of revenues and that is the key here. The market is choppy in the US today. JC Penney has replaced their CEO and the stock is down over 10 percent. This is dragging other stocks and restraining the market.    Q: It is not just revenue that could be a potential source of concern but it also seems that earnings growth is expected to gain by 1.6 percent this quarter compared to 6.2 percent last quarter. According to a data compiled by Thomson Reuters and that in itself should be a fairly big disappointment even if revenue comes in lower than expected indicating weak demand across the world?
A: Correct. I think the biggest focus will be on the corporate outlook in the second quarter, where there is lot of concerns. We have seen a seasonal pattern over the last several years, it is explained by what happened in Europe in those periods but there were also weak economics in those periods. There may be some seasonal going on that has not yet been reflected in outlooks. It may drag down the outlooks for management guidance for the second quarter.