Excerpt from thestreet.com about excellent corporate earnings this quarter.
“With about 278 companies in the S&P 500 reporting, 76% have beat expectations, 12% have matched, and 13% have fallen short vs. the typical breakdown of 60/20/20, according to John Butters, analyst at Thomson Financial. If the season ends with 76% of company reports beating expectations, the third quarter would mark the highest number of blowouts in 10 years, he says. The oohs and ahhs don’t end here. Companies are beating expectations by 6.1%, much more than the historical average of 3.2%, says Butters. In recent quarters, companies have beat by about 5%. In all, earnings have grown 17% in the third quarter, much more than the 14% estimate before the reporting began, says Butters.”
To me this again dispels the notion that this rally was not broad based and only few companies benefited from it. Tomorrow if the GDP number comes out ok, then this rally will probably carry on for another quarter.
