Earnings Season Stats by Sector

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit: Yesterday we highlighted the percentage of companies that have beaten earnings estimates this reporting period. Below we break down the beat rate by sector.

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit: The S&P 500 is currently just above its 50-day moving average, but less than 50% of the stocks in the index are above their 50-day moving averages. The reading is currently at 49%.

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit: Alcoa (AA) kicks off the third quarter reporting period next Thursday after the close. Below we highlight the current bottoms up sector year over year growth estimates for Q3 2010.

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit: Below is an updated look at S&P 500 sector weightings. As shown, Technology remains as the largest sector of the S&P 500 at 19.27%. Financials ranks second at 15.14%, and then Industrials, Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary, Energy and Health Care are bunched up between 10% and 12%.

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit: So far this earnings season, 67.6% of US companies have beaten earnings estimates. This is above the historical average, but below the levels of the prior three earnings seasons.

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit: As we come to the end of the first half of the year, below we take a look at S&P 500 sector performance so far in 2010. At this point, no sector is up year to date. The S&P 500 as a whole is down 6.17%, while the Materials sector is down the most at -12.22% and the Consumer Discretionary sector is down the least at -0.31%.

Article written by Prieur du Plessis, editor of the Investment Postcards from Cape Town blog.The update on U.S. sector PEs below comes courtesy of my friends at top-quality research house Bespoke.

Muditha Weeratunga submits:The recently announced QE2 was expected to achieve two objectives:1. Increase the economic activity by increasing the money supply and keeping interest rates low (this article is not focusing on this aspect of the QE2); and2. Make U.S. Dollar (USD) weak in the FX market. A weak USD should help the U.S. exports and put more pressure on the China to de-peg the currency to avoid high inflation levels.