News

On April 11 the two biggest influences of the Financial sector – JPMorgan Chase and CO. (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) –reported their quarterly earnings. The results were a bit of a mixed bag, with JPMorgan disappointing and Wells Fargo exceeding expectations.

In the Technology sector, there’s isn’t a clearly anointed bellwether who, rightly or wrongly, influences the general attitude concerning the sector’s near-term performance like JPMorgan and Wells Fargo. Chalk it up to tech’s propensity to change market leaders every five years or so.

Not that investors aren’t clamoring for one, especially one that could foretell a positive future for an industry that got hammered last week. But if one company does excel, the chances the sell-off can turn into a buy-in could increase substantially

Jim Cramer argues that a lot of things are going to have to fall in line for Tech to rebound and ultimately continue the bull run it’s been since 2008. Twitter (TWTR) is going to have to really impress. Microsoft Corp (MSFT) needs to overcome a recent downgrade. But the biggest catalyst that could signal a sectorwide comeback would be for Google Inc. (GOOG) to beat earnings, and beat them handily.

Google has been quite busy as of late, making major acquisitions and splitting their stock in a bid to consolidate voting power in the hands of its two founders. Whether or not Google has continued to be wildly profitable, however, will remain unclear until the company releases earnings.

And then, according to Cramer, we can get a much better idea as to whether or not Tech is due to crash or fly once more.

Google will report earnings on April 16. The company is expected to earn $6.36 a share.

DISCLOSURE: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of equities.com. Readers should not consider statements made by the author as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. To read our full disclosure, please go to: http://www.equities.com/disclaimer.