MarketsMay 22, 2026
S&P 500 Posts Best Earnings Beat Rate Since 2021 Led by Energy Sector Surge
Corporate Profits
Rhea Lobo
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The S&P 500 is on pace for its strongest earnings growth since 2021, with 83% of companies topping analyst estimates, Bloomberg Intelligence data shows.
Roughly 93% of index companies have reported first-quarter results. That beat rate is the highest in five years.
Gains are broad-based, with communications services, consumer discretionary, materials, and industrials all clearing the bar. Healthcare is the lone laggard.
Technology remains the index's largest earnings engine. More than 90% of the sector beat forecasts for a fourth consecutive quarter, per Bloomberg Intelligence.
Nvidia is the clearest example of upward revision momentum. Analysts now expect the chipmaker's adjusted profit to rise roughly 84% this year, up from a 64% forecast set at the start of 2026.
Citi raised its earnings outlook after Nvidia projected more than $1T in sales through 2027, a figure that excludes revenue from newer product lines including its Groq LPX systems and Vera processors.
Apple delivered a third-quarter forecast that beat Wall Street estimates. Alphabet eased investor concerns about AI threatening its core search business by integrating the technology directly into its platform.
Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Nathaniel Welnhofer and Christopher Cain described the current setup as a potential echo of the 2021 post-pandemic profit boom, provided cyclical sectors keep pace with AI-driven names.
No sector's outlook shifted more dramatically than energy. Full-year earnings for the group are now projected to rise 61%, compared with a 7.6% forecast set at the start of 2026.
The Iran war pushed oil and natural gas prices higher, boosting results at Exxon Mobil and Chevron despite some war-related production disruptions. ConocoPhillips rounds out the sector's top three earnings drivers, which together account for roughly half of the energy subindex's weight.
A Scotiabank analyst described companies as "broadly optimistic," citing strong project backlogs and steady growth heading into 2027.
Materials stocks emerged as a third driver, supported by price increases and tighter supply. Industrial gas producers Air Products and Chemicals and Linde may see additional tailwinds as global helium markets tighten. A Qatar plant outage in March took roughly a third of global supply offline, per Bloomberg Intelligence.
The consumer picture is cloudier. McDonald's and Whirlpool both flagged worsening household budgets on earnings calls, and full-year estimates for both companies moved lower.
Walt Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery held up better, with parks performance and streaming execution coming in ahead of expectations. The full-year outlook, per Bloomberg Intelligence, still hinges on whether energy, materials, and technology can sustain their upward revisions.
