NEW YORK – It's time to show the receipts, CEOs. For more than a year, investors have been pushing up stock prices, even though the pandemic caused profits to crater for companies.
With COVID-19 vaccines going into arms and businesses reopening, investors want to see that faith rewarded with some proof of fat profit growth, starting now.
Not only are expectations high for this upcoming earnings season, which got going Wednesday with reports from JPMorgan Chase and other big banks, they're rising even more by the day.
When the first quarter began, analysts were forecasting earnings growth of less than 16% for S&P 500 companies. Now, those same analysts say the tally should be closer to 25%.