While Q1 expectations have been marked down notably, the full year has hardly budged as the back-end of 2013 gets more and more loaded with margin expansion hope and earnings growth faith. As Goldman notes, consensus expects S&P 500 will deliver year-over-year EPS growth of +3% in 1Q 2013 driven by Financials earnings growth of 9%. Bottom-up consensus quarterly earnings growth rises from 3% in 1Q 2013 to 18% by 4Q 2013 using a recurring earnings 2012 base (Operating EPS is expected to surge to 29% growth by Q4). Against this, the level of consensus sales is highly correlated with economic growth expectations (i.e. moderate) and so it is on the shoulders of margins that the whole house of cards sits. Consensus expects margin recovery will begin in 4Q and extend throughout 2014. Consensus now expects full-year 2013 margins to reach a new peak of 9.2%. However, as Goldman notes, the prospect that margins may have peaked was a consistent theme that emerged during the 4Q 2012 earning conference calls; but we warn that 2013 earnings comparisons to 2013 will be problematic due to the significant differences between Operating and Adjusted EPS - which could also be quite telling in terms of accounting gimmickery.
Well there's one sector that is doing well, the free money FED IV sector.
How nice.
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