With investors cheering a soft landing in the economy Friday , they are likely to see another welcome change going forward: Earnings will only get better from here. That’s according to analysis by Bank of America, which looked at the changing expectations of Wall Street analysts and historical analysis to determine that the poor second quarter earnings results just reported will be the worst we see this cycle. “2023 expectations have stabilized, revisions turned positive and the global revision ratio is at levels that argue for risk-on, not risk-off,” wrote BofA strategist Savita Subramanian in a note Thursday. “Macro data is still strong, favorable seasonal trends suggest limited downside risk to 2023 EPS.” FactSet data shows S & P 500 earnings fell more than 4% on average from the year-earlier period during the second quarter. That marks the fourth straight quarter of declining profits. It’s also the biggest year-over-year earnings drop since the second quarter of 2023. “Absent a collapse in demand, 2Q likely marks the trough in earnings,” the report stated. For the full year 2023, Wall Street analysts currently project earnings for S & P 500 companies to post a slight increase, according to FactSet. Earnings will then ramp up and grow by 12.2% next year, they expect. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
