With second quarter earnings season nearly complete - around 80 percent of the S&P 500 has reported earnings thus far - there haven't been too many surprises. About 68 percent of all reporting companies have exceeded expectations, which is above the long-term average of around 60 percent. Just 22 percent have had negative earnings surprises, and 10 percent were neutral.
But American corporations seem to have made a concerted effort to downplay expectations, and it's paid off. Overall, the average company has increased its earnings by just 5.7 percent this quarter. That's not a very impressive figure.
Sales figures have been especially unimpressive. For the S&P 500 as a whole, year-to-year sales were reported down 0.4 percent. The sector showing the strongest sales growth has been information technology, which is up 7.7 percent from the year earlier. The weakest sector has been energy, where sales are down a whopping 14.2 percent.
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