Several Web sites list information on earnings surprises. Much of the information supplied is from Zacks.com. Each day the largest positive and negative surprises are listed. Go to: www.zacks.com/research/earnings/today_eps.php and identify the top positive and the top negative earnings surprises for the day. The table will list the time and date of the announcement. Do you notice any difference between the times of day positive announcements tend to be made versus negative announcements?

Identify the tickers for the top three positive surprises. Once you have identified the top surprises, go to finance.yahoo.com. Enter the ticker symbols and obtain quotes for these securities. Examine the 5-day charts for each of the companies and answer these questions:

• Is the information incorporated into price quickly?
• Is there any evidence of prior knowledge or anticipation of the disclosure in advance of the trading?

Choose one of the stocks listed and click on its symbol to follow the link for more information. Click on the link for an interactive chart that appears under the graph. You can move the cursor over various parts of the graph to investigate what happened to the price and trading volume of the stock on each trading day. Do you notice any patterns?

Your paper must be in a Word document of two to four pages, not counting a title and references page. Include any calculations you wish to support your argument in a table within your paper and be sure to submit only one document to be graded in response to this assignment. Cite a minimum of three outside sources, one of which may be your course textbook, in support of your responses.