Will Q3 Earnings Help Stock Bulls?

Q3 Results

The third quarter's earnings have so far exceeded many Wall Street forecasts. The S&P 500 has only reported from roughly 7% of its businesses, and bears are eager to point out that the earnings "beating" that have been produced so far have been against expectations that were much lower than they had been.

Bears also point out that the Energy sector, whose profits growth is predicted to be close to +120%, will account for the majority of Q3 earnings growth. With the exception of the Energy sector, the S&P 500 index's Q3 profits are anticipated to be -5.7% lower than they were in the prior year, with 7 of the index's 11 sectors forecast to have negative year-over-year earnings growth.

Exxon and Chevron, two major oil companies, will release earnings reports on Friday.

The Technology sector is at the opposite end of the spectrum, where profits are anticipated to decline by more than -14% in Q3 and more than -9% in Q4 2022.

This week, the biggest tech companies in the world all release earnings reports: Alphabet and Microsoft on Tuesday, Meta on Wednesday, Apple and Amazon on Thursday.

Alphabet's stock is down more than 25% year to date, while Microsoft is down close to 30%, Meta is down close to 40%, Apple is down close to -19%, and Amazon is down more than 30%.

Analysts appear to believe that companies that rely on advertising would suffer the most, while cloud computing is predicted to continue growing, although more slowly.

Investors are also interested in learning how different IT businesses may be impacted by US government sanctions against China. Today's results will be highlighted by HSBC and Discover Financial Services.