Remember — it’s not the news that matte…

Remember — it’s not the news that matters, but the market’s reaction to the news that matters.   Google reports…

Topline at $6.54 billion is about 5% better than consensus.

Bottomline at $8.08 per share is inline  versus the $8.10 consensus.  The media will call it a miss, but it would be a miss if it were say, 18 cents per share instead of 19 cents per share — a 5% miss in that case.  A 2 cent miss on a $8 is inline.

Stock getting hit by 4% after hours as the retail and small money managers trade the stock in reaction to the headlines “Google misses!”

Let’s see how it trades tomorrow.  I would expect it to trade mostly flattish on these results…but only the market can “tell” us what it actually was expecting for Google’s report.