The bulls will take a flat session in US stocks given the weakness seen in new home sales and further escalations in the Ukraine

The bulls will take a flat session in US stocks given the weakness seen in new home sales and further escalations in the Ukraine. Still, most equity traders would have been looking forward to trade in the post-market; given the cracking numbers from Facebook and Apple, our desk certainly saw a sizeable pick-up in activity in these trader favourites. Both stocks have rallied strongly in the post-market and especially with Facebook it appears that this is name that has good short-term upside potential. With Facebook and Apple having reported, we have now seen 32% of S&P 500 companies report, with an above average 74.8% having beaten on EPS, while 53.5% have beaten on the revenue line. On aggregate, we've seen 7.3% earnings growth and 2.5% revenue growth, with the big revenue growth coming from the oil and gas space (at 9.6% year-on-year). - (VIEW LINK)