All five retailers reporting last week posted negative revenue surprises. Except for Cisco Systems, information technology companies continued their trend of declining revenues. Earnings reports continued to trickle in last week, highlighted by large retailers and tech companies. Of the 12 companies that reported, half exceed their earnings estimates and only 4 beat on revenue. [...]

Shoppers nursed a holiday hangover in the first quarter of 2013 as cold weather and a two-week delay in federal tax refunds conspired to keep them out of the malls. The Thomson Reuters Same Store Sales Index is forecast to show just a 0.7% increase for Q1, significantly below the 3.4% gain registered in Q1 [...]

More than 90% of S&P 500 companies have reported first-quarter earnings. The earnings growth rate has increased to 5.3%, a significant increase from the 1.5% growth that was expected at the beginning of earnings season. Toward the end of an earnings season where two-thirds of companies have beaten earnings estimates even though less than half [...]

Spring worked its magic in April as warmer weather brought shoppers back to the malls. An early Easter holiday in late March helped, too. Excluding drug stores, the Thomson Reuters Same Store Sales Index registered a 5.0% gain for April, compared to the same month a year ago, beating a 4.9% final estimate. That’s the [...]

After a cold winter and chilly early spring, April’s soft breezes nudged retail customers back to the malls. The Thomson Reuters Same Store Sales Index is expected to post a 4.3% gain for April 2013, stronger than April 2012’s 0.8% result. Excluding the Drug Store sector, the SSS growth rate is projected to be 4.9%, [...]

Not only did cold weather keep diners at home, but when they went out, they didn’t want to spend much. As a result, the Quick Service group is outperforming the somewhat higher-priced Casual Dining restaurants. The Thomson Reuters Restaurant Same Store Sales Index forecasts a sluggish 1.0% SSS increase in Q1 2013, far below the [...]

Weakness was evident in the 14 Industrials companies that reported earnings last week, with 43% missing both earnings and revenue estimates. Analysts expect the second quarter of 2013 to remain a difficult one for the sector. Throughout the first-quarter earnings season, we have seen companies beat earnings estimates and miss revenue estimates at much higher [...]

We have passed the halfway point of the first quarter earnings season, and the trend we have seen so far continues. While the majority of companies are reporting stronger-than-expected earnings, most are missing on revenue. Last week was the heaviest week of earnings reports for S&P 500 companies, with 164 companies reporting first-quarter results. Of [...]

The rate at which companies are posting better-than-expected earnings may look impressive, but looking behind the headlines reveals an underlying problem: the fact that revenue growth just isn’t keeping pace. When analysts cut their earnings estimates for S&P 500 companies in the weeks that led up to the first quarter’s earnings season, they created opportunities [...]

After the preseason period fueled hopes of an unbroken pattern of healthy earnings gains and positive surprises, the first reports after Alcoa kicked off the official earnings season seemed to paint a different, more bearish, picture. But there is still plenty of room for the 74 companies scheduled to report their results this week to [...]