Thursday Earnings etc.

• JP Morgan numbers will be out soon and I'd bet they're going to be good
• IDC data indicate that Apple Mac shipments in June were well ahead of estimates
• BofA and Citi have secret deals with the government? On the Day Hank Paulson gets grilled? He is going under the bus
• China's GDP grew 7.9% in the 2nd quarter. Better than expected and better than ours. They must have directed their stimulus money at actual stimulus

Google and IBM are reporting tonight. The shorts have been trying hard to spook investors on Google's quarter. It was probably good. On IBM, in an up market, even their good news usually isn't good enough.

I'm hearing that NOBODY (investors I mean) is at Semicon West, the semi equipment trade show that analysts actually attend. The rally can probably continue is chip equipment if people aren't over thinking it.

Futures are kind of flat. JP Morgan and Nokia will probably set the tone this morning.

Edit:

JP Morgan is a beat top and bottom. Should be good enough.

Nokia - the quarter was OK but the margin guide down for the rest of the year is very disappointing. Nokia sells over 1.1 million phones per day but their high end offerings can't compete with RIMM and Apple.

Has Jamie Dimon Been Working Too Hard?

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, is battling under the weight of Bear Stearns' nasty balance sheet and the credit crunch that won't stop inflicting pain. This week he is adding to his to do list a crusade against any short seller who made money from the Bear Stearns decline. Presumably only JPM itself was supposed to profit from Bear's misery.

Dimon talked to Charlie Rose Monday night, and offered the following:

"This is even worse than insider trading. This is deliberate and malicious destruction of value and people's lives," Dimon said. "They shouldn't go to jail for a short period of time. If I was the SEC, I'd find out who made the money and I'd investigate like they do when they come after us all the time, e-mails, phone records, you name it, and I'd find out."

That is nonsense. I applaud anyone who correctly identified the fact that Bear's balance sheet was in jeopardy and made money on the short side.

If you were an institution with counterparty exposure to Bear, and you got short the stock or helped others do so, then either pulled your counterparty agreement or threatened to do so, or spread a rumor that you were going to do so, you have a problem. If you did good research and shorted Bear, good for you.

Jamie Dimon Says What Lots of Folks Are Thinking

"We almost deserve $4 gas. We knew in 1974 that we had a serious issue but we [didn't] have the political fortitude to do anything about it."

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon in an interview with Charlie Rose.