|
S&P
500 year-over-year earnings growth for the first quarter of 2024
is now seen at 5.6%, according to LSEG data on Friday. That is
up from 4.3% the day before.
The latest estimate is based on results from 229 of the S&P 500
companies and forecasts for the rest, with about 78% of reports
beating analysts' earnings expectations.
Some 90% of reports from the heavily-weighted communication
services are surpassing Wall Street earnings estimates and 88%
of reports from the technology sector are beating.
The S&P 500 is up more than 2% for the week but remains down
more than 2% since the end of March.
Helping to drive Friday's gains was a rally in Alphabet and
Microsoft shares, a day after both companies reported
stronger-than-expected results.
But results overall this earnings season have not been all
positive, said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel
in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"It's still a little early to draw a lot of conclusions, but I'm
going to call this a mixed earnings season," he said.
A disappointing forecast from Meta Platforms earlier this week
offset some of the earnings optimism.
Also, shares of Intel on Friday were down sharply after it late
Thursday gave a downbeat forecast.
Next week brings results from more big names including
Amazon.com and Apple.
LSEG noted that the first-quarter forecast has been impacted
heavily by an adjustment for Bristol Myers Squibb because of a
$12 billion one-time charge related to its acquisition of Karuna
Therapeutics.
Without that one-time item, S&P 500 earnings were expected to
have risen 8.7% year-over-year as of Friday, LSEG said.
(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; editing by Diane Craft)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
