John Authers' Morning Note

The US earnings season kicked off with aluminium group Alcoa announcing that it made a loss over the last three months, but predicting better times ahead. Robert Buckland, chief global equities strategist at Citi, tells the FT's Long View columnist John Authers that markets are too pessimistic about the prospects for companies this year. He predicts a 20 per cent gain in equities by the end of 2012.