Upside of December Meltdown Is Best Earnings Rally Since 2015
- The fourth-quarter rout has left a cushion for disappointment
- Companies are beating estimates at lowest rate since early ‘17
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If investors are learning anything from earnings season, it’s that last year’s stock sell-off did a lot more to prepare them for it than Wall Street analysts ever could have.
Consider results so far, in which company profits are coming in worse relative to analyst projections than any time in almost two years. But December’s rout in equities was so brutal that stocks are having no problem shaking off that performance to rally the most at this stage of the reporting cycle since 2015.