Chief Investment Strategist
Summary: In today's equity update we sum up the Q3 earnings season which has now ended in the US and Europe. Earnings and margin compression have been the worst in Europe and China, while US companies have seen less pressure but still lower earnings q/q in Q3 and the weakest earnings season in two years. We expect the margin pressure to continue causing headwinds for earnings growth next year. We also go through the key earnings releases next week with the most important companies reporting being Pinduoduo, Salesforce, and Snowflake.
Was Q3 margin pressure the canary in the coal mine?
With 97% of the companies in S&P 500 having reported the Q3 earnings season is definitively over and we can now begin to make firm conclusions about what is going on with earnings. S&P 500 earnings were down 2.5% q/q making Q3 the worst earnings season since the market bounced back from the abyss during the early days of the pandemic. European and Chinese earnings have been even worse declining around 9% q/q driven by more intense margin pressures than observed in the US. On revenue European companies did the best with revenue up 6.7% q/q compared to only 3.9%b q/q for S&P 500. The average q/q revenue growth rate the past two years is 5.3% in Europe and 3.5% in the US. Part of the difference can be explained by the stronger USD. As we have writing many times this month, the key dynamic for equities next year is the evolution of operating margin and if they go down to average levels in the past then headwinds will be too much for companies and lower earnings next year will likely follow.
Salesforce and Snowflake is seeing growth cooling down
Next week’s earnings releases are highlighted below. Pinduoduo on Monday is the key earnings focus in China with analysts expecting Q3 revenue growth of 44% y/y and the EBITDA margin staying at healthy levels around 21.2%. The main menu next week is on Wednesday with earnings from US technology companies Salesforce and Snowflake. Analysts expect Salesforce FY23 Q3 (ending 31 October) revenue growth to decline to 14% y/y down from 27% y/y a year ago and analysts expect Snowflake to report FY23 Q3 (ending 31 October) revenue growth of 61% y/y down from 110% y/y a year ago. Expectations for both companies highlight the slowdown in technology enterprise spending that we have seen from other technology companies including Intel, HP etc.
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