In response to an FT article by Nicole Bullock on 1st May 2016, entitled 'Investors wary despite US earnings beating forecasts'
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a349f6aa-0e4e-11e6-ad80-67655613c2d6.html#ixzz47TlukCVi
"US investors remain cautious about the corporate earnings outlook for the full year despite companies beating Wall Street forecasts for the first quarter...With 62 per cent of companies having reported their earnings as of last week, many were able to beat analysts’ estimates"
Labelling what are essentially 'sentiment management fantasies' as 'analyst forecasts' is a sign of just how comatose the markets and the financial media have become. Successive quarters, it plays out something like this:
1. Optimistic, which draws in and/or pacifies investors...2. Lower...3. Lower...4. Really low in order to set up the ground for an 'exceed' expectations...5. Exceed expectations...rinse and repeat
My own view on this charade has also gone through a process over time:
a) These guys are too optimistic...b) No, they're just not very good...c) No, the whole thing is as straight as a dog's hind leg
N.B. Stages a) and b) were very short. Stage c) has lasted far longer than I expected. Stage d) 'Thank God this scam has been discredited' will arrive eventually. When it does it will be symptomatic of the inevitable turn of the larger trend, away from centrally rigged, utterly corrupt markets, towards the re-emergence of market pricing mechanisms AKA capitalism. Personally, it can't come soon enough.