General Electric is set to report quarterly earnings Wednesday before the opening bell, and some are looking for any indication of a turnaround in store. The beleaguered stock is already the worst-performing Dow component of 2018, coming off of a historically bad year.
“Who would have thought that General Electric, the original member of the Dow, has now turned into the mangiest dog of the Dow,” said Boris Schlossberg, managing director of foreign exchange strategy at BK Asset Management.
Ahead of earnings, buying the stock would be a mistake, Schlossberg told CNBC’s “Trading Nation.” Here are his reasons why.
• As the major stock market averages have surged to all-time highs in a raging bull market, General Electric shares have repeatedly made new lows and on Monday fell to their lowest level since 2011.
• It would appear tempting to bargain hunt at these levels, as General Electric is still an established name with many properties around the world.
• Still, going bargain-hunting at this juncture would be unwise, as companies as complex as General Electric rarely see huge bounce backs after a fall like this.
• The company itself would need to see a fundamental recovery and the stock would need to set a technical “higher low” in order to confirm that the stock will put in a bottom.
The shares surged more than 4 percent Tuesday for their best session since 2015.
General Electric did not have a comment.
Bottom line: General Electric doesn’t appear to be a value play ahead of earnings, according to one strategist.
