Street: P Spx and Wall

street: That a tall order, since it requires them to keep those expectations artificially low over the three months prior to earnings season, according to Market Watch. While you might think this is perhaps possible for one or two quarters, it hard to imagine them getting away with it quarter after quarter. What those companies are trying to do, of course, is report that they have beat the consensus of Wall Street analysts' earnings estimates. Wouldn't Wall Street analysts—who presumably are quite intelligent—eventually catch on to the game Believe it or not, however, it appears as though either companies have become more skilled at playing this game over the years, or Wall Street analysts have become more clueless, or both. Among the firms in the S&P 500 SPX, -0.31% that have reported this earnings season, for example, 76.1% beat the analyst consensus and just 16.8% missed. Consider the percentage of recently-reporting companies that beat Wall Street expectations. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.