Wall Street has been seriously pessimistic about corporate earnings this year. With rising interest rates and stubborn inflation weighing on American industry, analysts predicted S&P 500 companies’ earnings per share (EPS) would drop between 6% and 7% year over year in the second quarter.
But so far, 87% of the firms in the blue-chip index have reported earnings, and they’ve managed to beat Wall Street’s (admittedly low) EPS targets by 2% on average, according to Bank of America. That leaves them on pace for a more muted EPS decline of 4% to 5%.
