This statistic from Bespoke Investment Group jumped out at me: For the 662 U.S. companies that have reported their second quarter results so far, 71.1 per cent have topped analysts' expectations. But the "beat rate" is substantially higher for companies within the S&P 500, at 78.8 per cent.
Just as odd, investors appear to be more enthusiastic about the wider market than the more blue-chip S&P 500. As Bespoke noted, the one-day gain for all stocks on their report days has been 0.55 per cent. For the S&P 500, though, stocks have fallen on average 0.34 per cent on their report days.
What gives? The stronger returns for the wider market could be the result of investors continuing to favour smaller, higher-risk stocks at the expense of global behemoths. The beat rate difference is more perplexing. You would think that companies within the S&P 500 would attract more analyst coverage - and more coverage should translate into more accurate earnings estimates, and a lower beat rate.