U.S. earnings forecasts improve a bit in latest week
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters) - Estimates for second-quarter earnings for Standard & Poor's 500 .SPX companies improved slightly in the latest week, thanks to strong results from a number of banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N).
Data compiled by Thomson Reuters this week showed a 35.2 percent decrease in earnings from a year ago compared with a decrease of 35.7 percent last week.
Of the 55 S&P companies that have reported results so far, 71 percent beat analyst expectations, 9 percent were in line with expectations and 20 percent were below estimates.
That's better than the long-term average, which is 61 percent of companies beating in a typical quarter, 19 percent matching estimates and 20 percent missing, according to John Butters, director of research group at Thomson Reuters.
"With a limited sample size, that's a fairly strong performance so far," Butters said.
The market is only a little over a week into the second-quarter reporting period, and the bulk of corporate reports are yet to come, including releases from many bellwethers.
Goldman, which reported a jump in profit on Tuesday, started earnings reporting off this week on a strong note. After the bell on Tuesday, chip maker Intel Corp (INTC.O) posted results that surpassed expectations and gave a forecast for current-quarter revenue that also topped forecasts.
Late on Thursday, International Business Machines (IBM.N), the world's largest technology services provider, boosted its profit outlook for the year.
Among disappointments were results from General Electric Co. (GE.N) early Friday.
But as a result of the strong start to second-quarter earnings, U.S. stock indexes put in their best week of gains since mid-March, and analysts said investors were keen to hear more from companies about the outlook for their businesses and for the economy.
All 10 sectors of the S&P 500 are expected to post declines in earnings for the second quarter compared with a year ago.
Some top names expected to post results next week: Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) and Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O). (Editing by Leslie Adler)
