Weldon: Can companies continue to surprise?

U.S.

We are seeing an increasing disconnect between company performance and economic data.

How this apparent conundrum is resolved will go a long way to setting the agenda for market performance over the rest of the year. On the company front, the Q2 earnings season has been another impressive one, with 72% of companies meeting or beating expectations and aggregate earnings growth coming in at 76%. Moreover, previous quarters’ complaints about the make-up of company profits were addressed this time, with revenues growing by 10.3% in Q2. Clearly, companies are doing well. What we need to work out is whether we are witnessing the final hurrah of this earnings cycle or whether...