Last Major Q2 Earnings Week

We remain in the thick of the second quarter reporting season this week, with reports from over 800 companies coming out, including 109 S&P 500 companies. While the reporting season will continue through the end of August, this will be the last major reporting week. By the end of the week, we will have results from 80% of the companies already known, giving us a fuller picture of the second quarter earnings season.

What we have seen thus far is not as bad as many of us feared just a few weeks back.

Total earnings for the roughly 58% of companies in the S&P 500 that have already reported are up 5.4% from the same period last year, primarily due to easy comparisons for the large banks. This compares to 8.3% growth for these same companies in the first quarter, when banks didn’t have such easy comparisons.

Approximately 67% of all companies are coming out with positive earnings surprises, with a median surprise of 2.8%. In the first quarter, 69.9% of these companies beat earnings expectations, with a median surprise of 4.1%. Excluding Finance, total earnings growth falls into the negative territory, down 1.5% from the same period last year, compared to positive 6.5% growth for the ex-Finance group in the first quarter.

Revenue growth has been notably weak this quarter, with only 36.6% of the companies reported coming out with positive revenue surprises. Even a number of these companies with positive surprises for the second quarter have guided towards softer revenue numbers in the coming quarters. This does not bode well for growth in the coming quarters.

For a detailed look on aggregate earnings, please read our weekly Earnings Trends write-up.

The economic calendar is very busy as well, with the labor market and the Fed in focus. We will get the July non-farm report coming out on Friday, and the Manufacturing ISM and FOMC announcement on Wednesday, just to name the major reports on deck.

Monday - 7/30

• No major economic releases this morning.
• The key earnings reports in the morning include Anadarko Petroleum (APC) and Loews Corp (L) in the morning, while Eastman Chemical (EMN) will report after the close.

Tuesday - 7/31

• We will get the June Personal Income & Outlays report in the morning, with expectations of 0.1% increase in spending, up from May’s unchanged reading. We will also get the Chicago PMI and the July Consumer Confidence Index readings.
• This is a busy earnings day, with reports from Pfizer (PFE), Coach (COH) and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the morning.

Wednesday - 8/1

• This is a busy day on the economic calendar, with the July ADP report coming out before the markets open, and the July Manufacturing ISM report out a little later. We will also have the FOMC meeting today, with the official statement coming out in the afternoon.
• Mastercard (MA), Time Warner (TWX) and Comcast (CMCSA) are the major earnings reports in the morning.

Thursday - 8/2

• It will be interesting to see whether the weekly Jobless Claims numbers this morning maintain the downtrend from the preceding week, particularly with the July jobs numbers coming out a day later.
• Another very busy earnings day, with results from Kraft (KFT), CBS (CBS) and Apache (APA) coming out.

Friday - 8/3

• The major report in the morning is the July monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with expectations with 110K jobs created in the month. We will also be getting the Non-manufacturing ISM report after the market opens.
• We will get results from Viacom (VIA.B), NYSE Euronext (NYX) and Procter & Gamble (PG) in the morning.

Here is a list of 813 companies reporting this week, including 109 from the S&P 500.