Will Corporate Earnings Drive Stocks Higher? Don’t Bet On It.

s&p ratioBreakout makes a compelling case that corporate earnings will continue to drive stock prices higher for the foreseeable future.

“Companies are getting incremental gains from revenue, holding the line on expenses, so at the end of the day we’re likely to see modest gain in earnings for the quarter, somewhere maybe around 5%,the economy here is going to reaccelerate ”

One big problem. Today’s earnings are an illusion at best driven by artificial credit infusion into our Economy by the FED. In fact, based on our rough calculations……if you take out the QE and other stimulus out of the corporate earnings equation, the S&P P/E ratio zooms up from about 18 today to 50 – 70 it really is. Making today’s market not only incredibly expensive (by any historical measure), but “are you freaking kidding me” expensive.

That is exactly what the vast majority of today’s investors (professional or not) miss. We have faced the exact same situation in 2007-2009 collapse when the P/E ratio zoomed up from about 20 at 2007 top to 128 in 2008 as supposed corporate earnings vanished into thin air. Expect the same thing to happen today as the bear market/recession of 2014-2017 show their ugly face and corporate earnings vanish once again.

Z31