Solid Earnings Growth Expected in 2020

As we look at the earnings for S/P 500 companies, the slow growth of 1.0% for 2019 appears to be improving in 2020 (FACTESET December 20, 2019). The Index earnings are now expected to grow to 178.21 in 2020, up from 162.78 in 2019. This 9.4% growth forecast is well above the slow growth achieved...

On December 11, 2019, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee issued its December statement which left short-term interest rates unchanged. The current rate for federal funds is a range of 1.5% to 1.75%. The formal press release suggests that the Fed is likely to leave rates unchanged over the next…

On December 6, 2019, the Department of Labor released its monthly employment report for November. The jobs growth came in at 266,000 well above consensus estimates for the month. Data revisions added 41,000 jobs to the previous two months. The three-month average gain is now 205,000. Manufacturing jobs…

With most of the S/P 500 Index companies having reported third quarter earnings results, we can now take an informed look at expected performance and growth. We use the FACTSET data release (November 15, 2019) to monitor the analyst consensus estimates. For the current 2019 year, the earnings estimate…

On November 27, 2019, the U. S. Commerce Department issued its second, updated estimate of GDP growth for the third quarter of 2019. Growth came in at an annual rate of 2.1%, up from the initial, Advance estimate of 1.9%. The 2.1% rate was above the second quarter rate of 2.0%, but lower than the...