Earnings Season May Mean Selloff in Stocks: Kleintop

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Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist with LPL Financial, joined Breakout from Boston to tell us how he thinks the market will handle the news as we get into the heart of earnings reporting season. His message wasn't one that's likely to comfort the suddenly beleaguered bulls.

"Seems like expectations may be a little bit too high going into recent earnings seasons," he says. In recent reporting periods, stocks have been "flat to down during the four to six weeks that companies actually release their results."
Kleintop says that 2011 first-quarter reports were likely to show companies beating earnings expectations by the more or less standard "two or three percentage points," but he says that's not where the smart investor should look. "What really matters is the guidance," he says in the accompanying clip, adding that he thinks "business leaders are going to play it safe (and) tone down (their outlooks)."