Second Quarter Earnings Forecasts

Judging by the performance of the stock market lately, one would think that earnings reports have been a big disappointment.  However, as the chart below shows, analysts have had to raise their EPS projections for the quarter by a wide margin.  As of June 30th, analysts were expecting year over year second quarter earnings growth of 4.6%.  Now, following reports from two thirds of the constituents in the S&P 500, analysts have boosted that growth rate up to 7.5% - an increase of 63%.