problem is that many co's (especially financials) are providing constant guidance every few weeks saying "earnings may be worse than previous guidance" that way, when the results come out 2 cents better than the prior guidance it looks OK..never mind that the actual earnings are wayyy worse than the guidance a year ago.....

i think many investors are just looking for reassurance like a company stating " yeah we had a screwed up quarter, next quarter looks even worse but at least we'll have a next quarter"....