Shares climb even for companies that miss expectations, indicating that a lot of bad news had already been priced inAmazon’s shares spiked after it reported earnings even though they were well below analyst expectations. Photograph: BloombergUS earnings season is winding to a close. A casual observer might assume it’s been a stellar quarter, given the extent of the market gains. In truth, FactSet data indicates it’s been a mixed bag.
Still, the number of companies beating earnings expectations was slightly below the five-year average. More notably, the average company exceeded estimates by 3.4 per cent – way below the five-year average of 8.8 per cent.