Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine, and eminently unsatisfying.

J. Paul Getty 

As the stream of earnings reports came rolling in this week, the center of attention, as always, is what came in from the largest companies... the whales, the 800 pound gorillas, the elephants in the room, the biggest and the ones everyone knows and loves (or hates, if you are Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and those who believe every big corporation will never be any good).  

In technology, Tim Cook and Apple (AAPL) reported a solid quarter and again sold over 50 million units of product, but because of its reliance on iPhone sales and questions about innovation and lack of strategy, investors were unimpressed. Google (GOOGL) had a strong quarter as some of its ‘moonshots’, more professionally known as greenfield opportunities, are starting to gain traction and narrow their losses, or heaven forbid, bring in profits. Twitter (TWTR) showed nice growth and announced layoffs, yet again.  Mr. Dorsey might want to address the little issue of option grants as 5% a year dilution makes it awfully hard to grow the bottom line.  Amazon (AMZN) showed good top line growth and told the world they are investing in all of the right areas like web services, India, artificial intelligence, and more warehouses.  Amazon always gets the benefit of the doubt as $125 billion in sales can solve the pesky problem of dubious investment analysts.  

In the consumer area, Coca-Cola (KO) showed better volume growth, while Chipotle  Mexican Grill (CMG) continued to struggle and decided to make major changes by adding products, advertising, and increased quality control, as if that was possible. Chipotle is also preparing to fight off activist Bill Ackman, who owns nearly 10% of the stock.

Under Armor (UA) is a well run, nicely growing company in the possession of a rich stock where it is very difficult to justify the price based on the current size of the business. It is a company, like many, where you would love to own it, but you cannot because the multiple is just too high. Maybe in time. VF Corp (VFC), also an attractive company, suffered from a tough retail sector as consumer spending on apparel remains sluggish.  Add that one to the list, too.  

In the oil patch, ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) reported billions in profits, as they have for the last fifty years. It seems when oil prices are at least somewhat normal, the integrated majors make their money.  Who knew?

In the banking sector, overseas banks like Barclay’s and Deutsche Bank (DB) reported decent numbers on the strength of the Fixed Income, Currencies, and Corporate line.  With the pretty good performance from large US banks and a record setting month of October in the merger and acquisition area, it is a good sign for the economy the largest banks seem to be in great shape (don’t tell Elizabeth and Bernie).  

In macroeconomic news, third quarter GDP growth came in at 2.9 percent but consumer spending was just a touch light. Ms. Yellen and the hard working group at the Federal Reserve Board will meet this week to tell us to wait until December, when the Fed will raise interest rates 25 basis points. It is about the only thing in markets we can now count on as uncertainty about the global and domestic economy, earnings and the election, rule the day.