Earns outlook II

With 84 companies in the S&P 500 reporting to date, earnings for the second quarter continue to be strong. The blended growth rate for the 2Q04 now stands at 21.0%, up from 19.6% at the end of last week. Companies are beating the estimates by 4.1%, which is below the the 7.9% surprise factor recorded in 1Q04 but above the average surprise factor of 3%. Should the growth rate for the 2Q04 remain above 20% (and it should barring any drastic earnings misses), this will mark the 4th consecutive quarter of 20% or greater year-over-year growth for companies in the S&P 500 index. This string of 4 straight quarters of 20% growth has only occurred twice in the past 25 years (3Q99-2Q00 and 4Q78-3Q79).
19/07 Thomson