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Pre-markets are up solidly to start a new week of trading. This will be the first full week of Q2 earnings season, as well as ushering in plenty of economic data like U.S. Retail Sales and New Housing Starts. In any case, the Dow is currently +220 points, the S&P 500 is +18 and the Nasdaq +60 points. Some have taken the opportunity to presume the big upswing in morning futures is directly related to odds increasing of former President Trump winning the General Election this November following a failed assassination attempt this past weekend.

We will reserve judgment on this ourselves. Instead, we’ll point to recent findings here at Zacks, such as Friday’s Earnings Preview report from Director of Research Sheraz Mian, entitled “Q2 Earnings Growth Expected to Reach 2-Year Highs.” Also, Friday’s market improved on the first of the big banks reporting earnings; we’re very early in the reporting cycle, but so far so good.

Goldman Sachs (GS) beat Q2 estimates this morning. Earnings of $8.62 per share beat the Zacks consensus by a solid dime — up +150% year over year — with revenues of $12.73 billion outpacing estimates of $17.60 billion, and +17% from the year-ago quarter. Investment banking grew +21% from this time last year, with Fixed Income up +17% from a year ago. This is the fourth straight quarterly earnings beat for the Wall Street investment banking giant. Shares are up modestly, but +23% year to date.

BlackRock (BLK) also posted a Q2 earnings beat. Its $10.36 per share surpassed the $9.96 estimate, and came in +12% year over year. Revenues of $4.81 billion, however, came up short of the $4.86 billion analysts were expecting, +8% from a year ago — and amounting to a record-setting $10.6 trillion in assets under management. It marks eight-straight earnings beats, even as early trading has brought the stock slightly into the red.

The earnings parade continues throughout the week. Naming just a few, throughout the coming week we’ll hear from Bank of America (BAC), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Netflix (NFLX) and American Express (AXP). Even though earnings season doesn’t truly pick up until next week and the week after, much attention is paid to the early reports — not only because it’s a new period but because market-cap weight is front-loaded every earnings season.

The Empire State survey came in negative for this month. The July print this morning, at -6.6, is within the -6 to -7 range analysts were looking for, and was the eighth-straight month of negative headlines for manufacturing in New York, the fourth-largest state in the union. That said, the negative reads have mellowed notably from the -43.7 in January of this year, which was second lowest all-time after April 2020’s -78.2, which was the first full month of the Covid pandemic.

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