Earnings Season ‘Kicks Off’ in Earnest This Week

$JPM, $MS, $GS, $BAC, $MSFT, $NFLX

FLASH: Traders will focus on the start to Q-2 earnings season this week.

Big banks including JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), along with Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) report Quarterly results this week, setting the tone for the rest of Q-2 earnings season.

Wall Street is ready for S&P 500 companies to post the worst batch of earnings results in 3 years in the face of ongoing macro-economic concerns. Consensus analysts expect an about 1% Y-Y decline in aggregate EPS for Q-2, due to deteriorating economic indicators including ISM and PMIs, and higher input costs as a result of a strong labor market.

Economic growth is the primary driver of S&P 500 sales and earnings growth.

Recall, that Wall Street analysts were also despondent heading into Q-1 earnings season, but corporations outperformed, and the market rallied to all time highs.

Analysts had expected a 2% decliner Y-Y in Q-1 S&P 500 EPS, similar to what they are now whispering (saying but not writing) in for Q-2, and the actual Q-1 EPS wrapped up with +3% Y-Y growth.

For Q-2, consensus expectations are calling for all 8 S&P 500 sectors to see positive sales growth, but margin contraction. The communication services and financials sectors are forecast to see the fastest pace of EPS growth, at 4% and 3% growth, respectively.

Stay tuned and have a terrific week