1Q22 Earnings Preview

Today in the podcast, our thoughts on the 1Q22 reporting season, which kicks off this week in earnest with Financials. The big things you need to know: First, full-year S&P 500 EPS forecasts on the sell-side for 2022 and 2023 have moved up $5-6 since January, but underlying expectations regarding the path of profitability are likely more conservative than this stat suggests. Second, forward-looking expectations are being propped up by a few sectors, including Energy and Tech. Third, our quantitative transcript review highlights the extent to which demand, inflation, price hikes, labor, the Fed, and Russia/Ukraine have been in focus in recent company commentary, and we expect these issues will remain key themes in 1Q22 earnings calls. Fourth, in our manual review of earnings call transcripts, one thing that’s really jumped out to us has been commentary on the consumer, which we think reflects a shift from goods to services spending and overall resilience.