Corporate Profits
A narrow equity rally was the key characteristic of the US stock market in the first five months of the year. Despite concerns about the domestic economic situation due to ongoing monetary tightening, and poor external dynamics – China’s underwhelming…
We are now midway through the Q2 2023 earnings season: 254 of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported. It’s therefore worthwhile to stand back and observe some of the emerging trends. According to Refinitiv IBES, 78.7% of companies have reported…
The US Consumer Discretionary sector has been one of the top winners since the equity rally broadened two months ago. Its 13% gain since the end of May outpaces the S&P 500’s rally by 3.8 percentage points This outperformance comes despite last week’s…
Equity investors resoundingly approved of the large-cap banks’ second-quarter earnings reports: in the seven sessions since C, JPM and WFC kicked off 2Q23 earnings on July 14th, the S&P 500 Banks Index rose 6.3% to the S&P 500’s 1%, with all but two…
BCA Research’s Private Market & Alternatives service sees challenges ahead for Global Buyout across geographies as valuations need further resetting. Buyout valuations globally are stretched relative to historic standards. For Large Buyouts, Purchasing…
The Q2-2023 earnings season will kick off this Friday. The following are the investors’ “Cliff notes” to this earnings season. Market Expectations Earnings growth: According to Refinitiv IBES, earnings will contract by 6.4% y/y. If that is an actual…
According to BCA Research’s China Investment Strategy service, although the recovery in overall Chinese industrial profits will be subdued, there will be a silver lining among China’s consumer goods producers, autos and utilities. Corporate earnings in…
The recovery of China’s industrial profits is set to disappoint in 2H 2023. Corporate profits are more sensitive to changes in prices than volumes. Given producers’ selling prices will keep deflating through 2023, industrial profits will only stabilize at a very depressed level even with a mild improvement in volume. A disappointing recovery in industrial profits entails more downward risks for A-share prices in absolute terms. Chinese 10-year bond yields are set to drop to a record low.
As we’ve highlighted in recent Insights, the S&P 500’s year-to-date rally has been concentrated among a few mega cap stocks. In particular, companies that benefit from the AI craze have driven the gains. This dynamic is also reflected in the sector…
According to BCA Research’s US Equity Strategy service, the earnings contraction is far from over. However, rising productivity, falling costs, or a new restocking cycle could help. Earnings and sales growth beat analyst expectations in Q1-23, yet in real…

