A really weird trend of the week

In what can only be described as a sign of the times, Goldman Sachs suffered its first decline in year-over-year earnings in 11 quarters and Lehman posted net income that was down 57 percent from a year earlier. Despite this, according to the Wall Street Journal, the news sent financial markets sharply higher. Why, you might ask? Because it wasn’t as bad as analysts predicted. Yes, a 57 percent decline in net income isn’t as bad as analysts thought. We’ll take the good news where we can get it, but this has even us feeling a bit queasy.