Estimates for European Q1 earnings have dropped from -1.6% to -3.4% in the past 2 weeks. This puts Europe’s estimates modestly better than the U.S. – which are at -4.3% for Q1 as of Friday.
While this is a big drop, expectations and sentiment remain very low for the region – so with a normal beat rate of ~3% European earnings could come in ~flat year on year. This would exceed the current excessive pessimism in sentiment for the region.
Revenues will come in positive as a function of the weak Euro. The early beat rate is constructive. We’ll know more as the data/forward guidance comes in over the next few weeks.