For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – August 19, 2026– Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mian says, “Q2 performance significantly exceeded recent historical baselines. Both growth rates and beat percentages tracked comfortably above this group’s 20-quarter averages.”
Tech & Energy Fuel S&P 500 Growth Engine
Note: The following is an excerpt from this week’s Earnings Trends report. You can access the full report that contains detailed historical actual and estimates for the current and following periods, please click here>>>
Here are the key points:
For the 463 S&P 500 companies reporting Q2 results (representing 92.6% of total index membership), aggregate earnings grew +40.9% year-over-year on +14.5% higher revenues. Positive Surprises were widespread, with 83.8% beating EPS estimates and 76.9% topping revenue estimates.
Q2 performance significantly exceeded recent historical baselines. Both growth rates and beat percentages tracked comfortably above this group’s 20-quarter averages.
Excluding Micron and Alphabet, Q2 earnings for the remaining 461 reporting index members rose +21.5% (compared to +40.9% unadjusted) on +13.4% higher revenue (compared to +14.5% unadjusted), maintaining a solid growth profile.
Q2 earnings growth within the Tech sector remains heavily concentrated in Nvidia NVDA,Micron MU and Alphabet GOOGL. Stripping the contribution of these three companies reduces Q2 earnings growth for the remainder of the Tech sector to +33.7% (down from +95.2%).
The Earnings Big Picture
Estimates for full-year 2026 have also been steadily going up, particularly since the start of March.
Full-year 2026 earnings estimates have increased for 10 of the 16 Zacks sectors since the start of March, with the most pronounced gains in the Energy, Basic Materials, Tech, Industrials, Utilities, and Business Services sectors. On the negative side, estimates have been under pressure for the Transportation, Autos, Medical, and Consumer Discretionary sectors since the start of March.
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