18 Jul 2003 Lazy Summer Days

The earnings reporting season is in full swing now with a quarter of S&P 500 companies reporting this week.  The results were quite good on balance as numerous companies soundly beat analysts’ estimates.  Those companies beating analysts’ estimates span a broad range of industries.  They include Caterpillar, SanDisk, Boise Cascade, Georgia-Pacific, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, USA Truck, Marriott Int’l, Coca Cola, Ford, Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, New YorkTimes, and BB&T.  The list of companies surprising negatively is much shorter.  But it includes some notables like Kraft Foods, Fannie Mae, FleetBoston, Hershey Foods, Sears, and Microsoft.