Wall Street Expected a Slowdown in Q2. Corporate America Had Other Plans.
2026-05-27 06:35:00 ET
Stocks might have finished the first quarter (Q1) on a low note thanks to the military conflict with Iran. Anyone counting on that weakness to persist into Q2, however, was sorely mistaken. Down 5% for the year as of the end of March, the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) is now up more than 9% since the end of 2025.
Earnings did a great deal of the work, of course. Numbers from FactSet indicate 84% of the S&P 500's constituents topped Q1 analyst earnings estimates. In fact, Q1's earnings growth of more than 28% is the fastest year-over-year growth since the final quarter of 2021 when comparisons were made to the worst part of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thank technology companies like Meta and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) , which made the biggest contribution to the improvement. That said, energy companies and their stocks have benefited from oil's soaring prices as well.
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