So far 127 S&P 500 companies have reported June 30 earnings (losses).
That’s about 25% with 184 or around 36% to report this week with a trio of megatechs will dominate.
As noted elsewhere the strength of the earnings season could take a turn, in either direction, after the coming week, in which 184, or about 36% of the index, reports results.
That will be dominated by Apple, Amazon and Alphabet which all report after the bell on Thursday (after 6 am Friday, Sydney time).
The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed more than 80% of the companies reporting so far to beat earnings-per-share estimates, according to US analysts at JPMorgan Chase, which compares with the 65% companies that topped expectations in the first quarter.
But several analysts said the original estimate of a fall of 43% to nearly 45% in earnings was a very low bar set that has allowed a lot of companies to top this low bar with ease, even though they have reported miserable figures.
The average beat rate over the past five years has been about 72%, according to FactSet senior earnings analyst John Butters.
FactSet’s current blended year-over-year growth estimate for earnings per share, which includes results that have already been reported and the average analyst estimates of coming results, is negative 42.4% through Friday.
That includes a 43.2% drop in already reported results. The decline is on track to be the biggest since the fourth quarter of 2008, in the depths of the GFC.
The S&P 500 index is up nearly 2% since earnings season unofficially kicked off on July 14. Nasdaq is down 1.1%.
FactSet says the outlook for the third quarter is for negative earnings growth of 23.9%, very similar to the pre-earnings estimate of a 24.4% fall.
Sales are now expected to fall 5.1%, versus previous expectations of a 5.5% decline.
