Morning Journal--Is congress finally on to the Fed

 News on Stocks in Our Portfolios

 

Balchem (BCPC): Q4 EPS of $0.33 misses by $0.01. Revenue of $80.1M beats by $9M.

Reliance Steel (RS): Q4 EPS of $1.06 beats by $0.08. Revenue of $1.89B (-7.1% Y/Y) misses by $0.05B.

Hormel Foods (HRL): FQ1 EPS of $0.48 misses by $0.01. Revenue of $2.1B (+4% Y/Y) misses by $0.04B

Economics

   This Week’s Data

            January existing home sales fell fractionally which was a slightly smaller drop than expected.

            http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/02/existing-home-sales-in-january-492.html

            The February Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index came in at -12.5 versus estimates of +1.1.

            January leading economic indicators rose 0.2% versus forecast of +0.3%.

            http://advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/Conference-Board-Leading-Economic-Index.php

   Other

            What’s wrong with the financial services industry (short):

            http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/02/whats-wrong-with-the-financial-services-industry/

            Goldman indicator pointing to global slowdown (short):

            http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-21/global-leading-indicator-shows-slowdown-dead-ahead

Politics

  Domestic

Congress is finally starting to figure out the risks in Fed policy (medium):

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-21/congress-asks-bernanke-full-risk-analysis-feds-soaring-balance-sheet