Week of Apple, 10/22/12

Last week was a brutal one for the markets with poor earnings reports from IBM Intel, Microsoft and Google. Even McDonald’s, which typically does well, had its worst earnings in nine years, worse even than in 2008 (and that’s saying something!). Johnson & Johnson’s earnings were slightly better than expected; although costs were higher, they were one-time costs for the most part.

Abbott Laboratories had a mixed week last week with good news from one drug trial and horrible new from another, which caused the stock to get creamed.

Amgen and Facebook report on Tuesday with Regeneron on Wednesday. According to Marek, Regeneron is expected to show “out of this world results.”

But really, this is the week of Apple, with the iPad mini release on Tuesday and earnings on Thursday. Apple needs good news this week since last quarter was a rare disappointment.

If you have any questions for Marek, he can be contacted through Twitter at @MarekFuchs.

Watch past Wall Street Wrap Up videos here.

Marek Fuchs was a stockbroker for Shearson Lehman Brothers before becoming a journalist who wrote The New York Times' "County Lines" column for six years. Marek speaks regularly on business and journalism issues at venues ranging from annual meetings of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers to PBS to National Public Radio. His last book, A Cold-Blooded Business, was called "riveting" by Kirkus Reviews and next book, Local Heroes: Portraits of American Volunteer Firefighters is due out in 2012. He is on the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. When Marek is not writing, teaching or filming videos, he serves as a volunteer firefighter.