As 21Q2 earnings season concludes, we move our lens to the next quarter to gauge earnings momentum.  Encouragingly, the S&P 500 21Q3 earnings growth rate forecast has steadily improved over the last three months and currently stands at 29.8%. In this note, we focus our attention to company behaviour in the form of pre-announcement data, which can help assess whether companies feel bullish or bearish about their own prospects. Exhibit 1 highlights the latest S&P 500 21Q3 guidance data as of September 10th.  We note 58 instances of positive pre-announcements (i.e., company guided higher than the consensus estimate at the

Investors eagerly await the unofficial kickoff to 2020’s third quarter earnings season during the week of October 12. This comes at a time of heightened volatility where the S&P 500 index (.SPX) climbed 15.73% between the June 30 close and September 2 all-time high of 3,588.11 before falling 10.55% to the September 24 low of 3,209.45. With the U.S. presidential election looming and an index that has rebounded 8.34% to 3,477.13 as of the October 9 close, the stakes are high heading into the 2020 Q3 earnings season. Adding to the pressure is a high bar set by multiple new