Earnings Season Comes to an End

Earnings season ended with little fanfare yesterday after Wal-Mart (WMT) reported its quarterly numbers. For the reporting period, the average stock went down 0.03% on the first trading day following its earnings report. The average stock that beat estimates went up 1.32% on its report day, while the average stock that missed estimates went down 3.43%.

With so many more companies beating estimates than missing, it's not surprising to see stocks that missed went down much more than stocks that beat went up.

While the average stock went down on its report day, the S&P 500 rose a solid 2.8% throughout the reporting period. All in all, it was a decent earnings season, but not quite as strong as the prior two. (Click to enlarge)