Big News Is Coming On Friday.....

The dollar inched up against the euro and was unchanged versus the pound Tuesday as markets extended a pause ahead of potentially grim first-quarter U.S. corporate earnings reports.

The 16-nation euro bought $1.3255 in late New York trading, down from $1.3395 Monday. The British pound was flat at $1.4726, while the dollar declined to 100.52 Japanese yen from 100.93 yen.

Markets were uneasy ahead of the earnings season, which kicked off late Tuesday with Alcoa Inc. The giant aluminum maker reported a loss of $497 million after markets closed, setting the tone for potentially more dismal results to come.

Meanwhile, reports that IBM Corp. has walked away from a takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc. prompted equity investors to book profits built up over the last few weeks.

Investors are focused on bank earnings that get under way next week after Friday's market holiday, and several pessimistic forecasts about potential loan losses have jolted the market in recent days. Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. all report next week.

The dollar often benefits from market jitters, as investors repatriate funds back into the U.S. to avoid losses, boosting the currency.

Major stock barometers were all down more than 2 percent Tuesday. Analysts attributed the pullback to profit-taking after a huge advance in March that gave the Dow its best four-week performance in more than 75 years. Trading volume was low, which can amplify swings in the indexes.

Stock markets overseas also stumbled. In Europe, the European Union's statistics agency reporting a 1.6 percent contraction in eurozone economies in the fourth quarter of 2008. That is worse than the Eurostat's preliminary estimate of a 1.5 percent drop in gross domestic product, and economists expect economic activity to keep contracting. In Britain, industrial output sank for a 12th consecutive month.

German automakers Daimler and BMW said a reluctance by consumers to spend on luxury autos trimmed first quarter sales - but Porsche reported an increase in Germany. Despite Porsche's gain, all three companies traded lower. Daimler lost 1.5 percent, BMW 4.4 percent and Porsche 4.4 percent.

In London, Royal Bank of Scotland led the financials lower, its shares falling 10 percent after the company said it could cut as many as 9,000 jobs globally over the next two years as its restructures its back office operations.

In other late New York trading Tuesday, the dollar slipped to 1.2373 Canadian dollars from 1.2404 after the Canadian government said it will provide additional help to the country's auto industry, but warned that Canadians need to be prepared for the possibility that General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LL. could file for bankruptcy protection.

The dollar rose to 1.1440 Swiss francs from 1.1372.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/...ap6266614.html

In essence, on Friday we're going to be given a solid indicator of whether or not the economy is growing again and we're actually heading out of the recession.

If we see good 1Q reports from several high profile companies the stock markets should rally like crazy the following week, now is definitely the time to take a punt at investing especially in companies that have seen poor earnings last quarter $0.02

Regards,

Lee