Retailing giant Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) is scheduled to report 19Q3 earnings after the close on Oct. 24. The company known for industry disruption is expected to increase third quarter ad-revenue 71.7% from the prior year and to far outpace the 14.2% outlook for the S&P 500 media entertainment industry group. Analysts also anticipate that Amazon will outperform the S&P 500’s interactive media & services industry (19.5%), which consists of names such as Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O, GOOG.O), Facebook Inc (FB.O), and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N).

Netflix shows that it’s not enough to beat earnings. The media giant beat 19Q2 earnings with an EPS of $0.60 vs. the $0.56 per share estimate; however, failed to deliver on a key performance indicator. Net subscriber additions for the quarter of 2,699 million missed expectations by 47.2%. As a result, Netflix shares have fallen 16%. Now that the stage has been set, investors eagerly await the fate of the remaining members of F.A.N.G., Facebook Inc (FB.O), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O, GOOG.O), which start to report this afternoon with Facebook. Exhibit 1: F.A.N.G. YoY Growth Rates Analysts

The second quarter of 2019’s earnings season has arrived and analysts have become increasingly bearish. Analysts currently estimate S&P 500 year-on-year (YoY) 19Q2 earnings will decline 0.1%; however, a year ago expectations for the index were for an increase of 10.6%. Anticipation of margin compression is one of the reasons for the decline in earnings expectations. Exhibit 1: S&P 500 YoY 19Q2 Earnings Estimate History Part of the reduction in growth is due to a stronger than expected 18Q2 earnings (80.2% of companies beat estimates), which led 19Q2 YoY estimates to fall to 9.2% by Oct. 1, 2018. It is

The image above depicts MarketPsych’s media sentiment data as it monitors perceptions of corporate management. Note the lack of drama around Satya Nadella at Microsoft, while Zuckerberg and Musk have kept their Investor Relations firms busy.

The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) sectors are about to undergo a major reshuffle that will impact the Consumer Discretionary, Information Technology, and Telecommunication Services sectors. Combined, these three sectors account for over 40% of the S&P 500’s market cap. The change impacts a large portion of the index and unlike the previous change that broke out the Real Estate sector from the Financials sector, this reclassification is not clean. Exhibit 1: Comparison of S&P 500 New to Current GICS Sectors Source: I/B/E/S On Monday, Sep. 24, 2018, a new GICS sector, Communication Services, will be implemented. The new sector

Nearly two thirds of S&P 500 companies (65%) have reported 2018 Q2 earnings and the quarter is on track to set new records. Companies are beating high earnings expectations at a record rate and earnings growth is expected to be the strongest second quarter since 2010 Q2. The quarter may also see the first trillion dollar company with Apple Inc. (AAPL.OQ) shares on the rise following their 2018 Q2 results. Exhibit 1: S&P 500 18Q2 YoY Earnings Expectation History In a typical quarter, analysts become more bearish as the earnings season approaches, making downward revisions to earnings estimates. However, the

Alphabet is stuck at the letter G. The holding company of Google was created to safeguard against conventionality and let moonshot ideas, like self-driving cars, flourish. Almost three years in, it’s basically still just Google. Which means, in turn, that the A in Alphabet stands mainly for advertising. Back in 2015, Google co-founder Larry Page explained the formation of holding company Alphabet was to keep things “crazy.” After all, products like the Android operating system and Google Maps had become less zany as they attracted billions of users. The purpose of Alphabet was to keep that same spirit alive while

Much of the stock market’s recent boom resided in an acronym: FAANG, for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, aka Alphabet. As important as they’ve become, investors tired of this trade can look forward in 2018 to a new set of letters to jumble into a more exciting investment thesis. Call it SLAW. Four of the most highly valued private companies – Spotify, Lyft, Airbnb and WeWork – are in various stages of preparing to go public. Although none may ever match the scale of a FAANG or a BAT – as China’s Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are known –