Why Q3 earnings season is going to be 'tricky': Strategist

Ohsung Kwon, US & Canada equity strategist at Bank of America, tells Yahoo Finance about his expectations for the upcoming third quarter earnings season.

"This earnings season is going to be pretty tricky. I don't think the big focus is on Q3. Everyone basically knows that Q3 wasn't a very strong macro environment. Macro has slowed down. So I don't think expectations are that high for Q3 to begin with. If you look at Q3 consensus numbers, EPS is expected to be up 4% year-over-year, which is a pretty big deceleration versus up 11% that we saw in Q2," Kwon says.

"I don't think the bar is that high, but also the focus isn't really about Q3. It's really about companies' outlook on the other side of the curve now that the easing cycle has started, what companies are going to say about any early indications of improvement given the lower rate environment," he adds.

The strategist notes, "I think it's too early" to see meaningful improvements driven by the start of the rate easing cycle, "but even a little bit of improvement in terms of sentiment. Plus, China, affects pressure easing. So, things like that, I think, are going to be the main focus this earnings season."

This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.

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