Monday, 03 Aug 2020 06:51 AM MYT
More than halfway through second-quarter earnings, 82.1 per cent of companies reporting have surpassed profit expectations, which would be the highest in the history of Refinitiv IBES data going back to 1994. In many cases, estimates had been lowered so much ahead of earnings season that they were easier to beat, strategists said. Still, the results bolster the case for investors betting that the impact of coronavirus-led lockdowns and layoffs on companies’ bottom lines may not be quite as dire as previously believed.
Second-quarter S&P 500 earnings - expected to have dropped 33.8 per cent from a year ago — are still set to be the low point for earnings this year and the biggest quarterly decline since the financial crisis. With results in so far from 36 of the 71 tech companies in the S&P 500, second-quarter earnings for the S&P 500 tech sector now are seen growing 1.4 per cent from a year ago versus an 8 per cent decline estimated on July 1, Refinitiv’s data shows.