My best hit on 3 Stock Lunch to date. Let's get into it.
CAT - great earnings, China is less than 10% of earnings and wasn't a disaster, and no complaining about the strong dollar. This is an example of improved sentiment - which is why it's an interesting stock to look at. Notice that they went from reducing inventory by 300million to dealers to increasing to dealers by 700million? And a bears didn't bring that up. They just sold a bunch on the books stuff that is sitting in a showroom. Clearly people are just happy they are making money.
MCD - increased the dividend by 10%, no complaining about the dollar - even with 66% of sales coming from outside the US. Even European stores did well. Plus, the got Russia off the books this quarter. I guess adult Happy Meals worked out. NOW - nope. Classic example of why eventually valuations matter.
Service NOW had great numbers, growing at 20%, but it's a 400 buck stock making less than a buck in earnings. Come on, most big firms in America are already clients. Sure, I don't think people will stop paying for their HR software, but they are not a new fresh thing anymore. In this environment, investors aren't going to put up with high P/Es - because it could take a lot longer to reach the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
As you can see, you can learn a lot about the overall market by checking out individual stocks and how they react to earnings.