It is, as they say, sometimes better to travel in hope and expectation than to arrive.
Online retailing-cum-tax-avoidance specialist Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares rose 8.9% on Thursday in the regular trading session, presumably in expectation of good results to be announced after the bell.
This was even though eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), a competitor of sorts, had seen its shares tumble 12.5% on Thursday after a disappointing end-of-year trading update.
Perhaps investors attributed eBay's lacklustre performance to the widely-held belief that Amazon is gradually eating eBay's lunch, but if so, they were unpleasantly surprised by Amazon's results when they were finally announced.
The shares shed 15% in after-hours trading, though that deficit has been reduced to around 11% in pre-market trading on Friday, as the retailer's sales and profits came in below expectations.
Earnings per share of a dollar in the fourth quarter were a barely believable 55 cents short of what analysts had been expecting.
Revenue rose 22% year-on-year to US$35.7bn, US$200mln or so short of expectations.
Oh well … at least the tax bill won't be so big.
Moving away from corporations with dodgy reputations to … er … the Murdoch media dynasty that brought you companies such as News International and Fox News.
Rupert Murdoch's younger son, James Murdoch, has returned to the chair of pay-TV leviathan Sky (LON:SKY), having given up the role when he felt his involvement/non-involvement (delete according to preconceived prejudices) in the News International phone hacking scandal in the UK was becoming too much of a distraction.
All has been forgotten and forgiven, by the Sky board at least, and Murdoch is back as chairman, presumably with the full support of Rupert Murdoch's Fox organisation, which owns 39.1% of Sky.
Paul Walsh, the former chief executive of drinks maker Diageo (LON:DGE), has become chairman of Chime Communications, the marketing and public relations group.
So far as I know, his daddy does not own a large chunk of shares in the company.
Meanwhile, Diageo reported that single malt whisky sales surged in Britain over Christmas, which is one in the eye for all those bearded craft ale aficionados.
Whisky drinkers were sporting unflattering beards and boring everyone with tasting tips long before the American IPA crowd got in on the game.
The Bank of Japan has, according to the Daily Telegraph, stunned the market by announcing negative interest rates.
Howard Archer, the quick off the mark but occasionally prone to typos economist at forecasting unit IHS Global Insight, reckons the chances of the Bank of England following suit at its February rate-setting meeting are less than zero.
“Whether the Bank of England acts on interest rates at all in 2016 currently looks touch and go,” Archer reckons.
The Daily Mail reports that London's first driver-less cars will be tested on the city's streets this summer, after being adapted from shuttle pods already running at Heathrow Airport.
By driver-less cars they are not talking about those vehicles that have idiots sitting in the driving seat looking at their mobile phones.
Among the minnows, private investors are clicking on the news item from Challenger Acquisitions (LON:CHAL), which has increased its investment in the New York Wheel.
Now, that's what I call I driver-less vehicle ...