Positive earnings outlooks from S&P 500 slightly outpacing negative ones on Q2

POSITIVE EARNINGS OUTLOOKS FROM S&P 500 SLIGHTLY OUTPACING NEGATIVE ONES ON Q2

Positive earnings pre-announcements from S&P 500 CBOE:SPX companies are outpacing negative ones on the second quarter by 61 to 58, according to recent data from Tajinder Dhillon, head of earnings and equity research at LSEG Data & Analytics.

There are a total of 132 pre-announcements so far from S&P 500 companies, with 13 of them giving in-line outlooks. There were 122 pre-announcements in the year-ago second quarter, with 68 of them coming in negative and 46 positive. Not all companies give guidance on earnings.

The latest pre-announcements result in a negative-to-positive ratio of 1 to 1, which compares to a long-term negative-to-positive ratio since 1997 of 2.5 to 1 and to the average of the prior four quarters of 1.3 to 1, Dhillon notes.

Analysts are expecting another earnings season of more than 20% profit growth for S&P 500 companies, based on LSEG data.

They estimate growth of 24.4% year-over-year for the second quarter compared with 29.4% growth in the first quarter.

Earnings season unofficially starts with results from many of the U.S. big banks including JPMorgan Chase NYSE:JPM next week.