Initial Q3 Results Are Better-Than-Expected

As we await news reports from companies reporting Q3 results this morning, we see the October Empire State Index — which had been expected out this morning — was released in error yesterday, with a headline of 4.0. This is better than the 2.0 expected, and between recent highs (+24.3 in August 2018) and lows (-8.6 in June 2019).

Clearly, these results tend toward the more volatile, although interestingly, the estimates for this New York state production survey are almost always higher than the actual — though not for this month. This index looks to be bouncing off those recent lows; the end of the year will be key for this metric.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM), a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company, outperformed expectations on both top and bottom lines: $2.68 per share versus $2.44 expected. Revenues came in at $29.3 billion, above the $28.4 billion analysts were looking for. Fixed Income, working off a relatively weak year-over-year comp, was up 25% in Q3 2019, while Credit Loss Provisions rose 60% from the year-ago quarter.

Shares at this hour in the pre-market are up 1.9% on the news, and +7% year to date. JPMorgan has only come up short of earnings estimates once since Q1 2016. For more on JPM’s earnings, click here.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) (JNJ), a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell)-rated stock ahead of its earnings report, beat estimates on both top and bottom lines this morning: $2.12 per share amounted to a 12-cent positive surprise, on sales of $20.73 billion which surpassed the $20.08 billion expected. Sales in its important Pharma space rose 5.1%.

J&J raised earnings guidance for full-year 2019 — up 9 cents on the bottom end of the range and +4 cents on the top, to $8.67 per share. Shares are up 1.66% at this moment of pre-market trading, coming up from its near-lows year to date. For more on JNJ’s earnings, click here.

These amount to just a sample of what we are about to see in the days and weeks ahead. Will Q3 bear out better than expected, or are we destined for an earnings recession? For a comprehensive view on the subject, check out this interview with Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mian: Are We In an Earnings Recession?