The big things you need to know:

• First, earnings sentiment staged a partial comeback last week as the rate of upward EPS estimate revisions for the S&P 500 moved up again slightly vs. the prior week but remained below its August high.
• Second, we run through the latest big picture takeaways from S&P 500 earnings calls.
• Third, other things on our mind include our work the valuation profile of high earnings quality stocks within Small Cap and how we’re thinking about the government shutdown.

The big things you need to know:

• First, the percent of S&P 500 companies beating consensus EPS forecasts remains well above 2Q25 levels despite slipping a little last week. Meanwhile, the rate of upward EPS estimate revisions improved slightly but remains well below the high of the last reporting season.
• Second, macro commentary in last week’s S&P 500 earnings calls remained mixed and varied by sector, with the strongest tone coming out of Tech and Health Care and the weakest tone coming from Consumer.
• Third, we noticed more tricks than treats as we ran through our latest updates over Halloween weekend, and run through some of the charts that are spooking us the most on the broader market right now.

The big things you need to know:

• First, 3Q25 reporting season has gotten off to a strong start on beat rates for the major indices, but we are continuing to see deterioration in the rate of upward EPS estimate revisions for the S&P 500, the Russell 2000, the biggest market cap names in those indices, and the rest of both indices when their top weights are excluded – something we continue to see as a challenge for performance if it persists.
• Second, we run through the main macro takeaways we found in our review of last week’s S&P 500 earnings calls. The tone on the overall macro, consumer and tariffs came across as mixed, with a number of companies expressing optimism about improvements / stabilization underway or potentially coming into view.
• Third, other things that jump out in our updates this week include a new study we’ve published on the relationship between ROEs and P/Es in the major Small, Mid and Large Cap indices.