Good morning. There’s one number Wall Street watches more closely than almost any other: how much more (or less) money the biggest publicly traded companies in the U.S. are making compared with a year ago. It’s a pulse check not just for the market, but for the broader economy. And right now, that pulse is racing.
As of Monday, the blended earnings growth rate for the S&P 500 in Q2 2026 is 51%, according to an analysis by John Butters, VP and senior earnings analyst at FactSet, shared with CFO Daily. (Blended means it combines actual results from companies that have already reported with estimates for those that haven’t yet.) If that number holds, it would be the index’s highest earnings growth rate since Q2 2021, when it hit 91.6%.
