S&P 500 Q3 Earnings Preview: Earnings and Revenue Growth Expected to Surge

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:

• Although corporate earnings have trended positively over the past two years, the current momentum is truly exceptional. Growth is not only rapid and accelerating but also widely distributed across sectors and steadily expanding. This broad-based strength creates a highly supportive backdrop for the market.

• The Q2 earnings season is ‘officially’ not over yet, with roughly a dozen S&P 500 members yet to come out with their quarterly results. But for all practical purposes, the Q2 reporting cycle is now behind us, and we are starting to shift our attention to the Q3 earnings season.

• For 2026 Q3, the expectation is that total S&P 500 earnings will increase +23.0% from the same period last year on +11.1% higher revenues, with 14 of the 16 Zacks expected to enjoy positive earnings growth and 6 sectors producing double-digit growth. This will be the most broad-based earnings growth performance in recent times.

• With Conglomerates (-35.4%) and Consumer Staples (-0.1%) as the only Zacks sectors expected to have lower Q3 earnings relative to the year-earlier period, the quarter is on track to produce an impressively broad-based growth performance.

• Alphabet (GOOGL), Micron (MU), and Nvidia (NVDA) continue to be material contributors to the Tech sector’s growth picture. Excluding these three companies, Q3 earnings for the rest of the Tech sector would be +18.7% (vs. +40.5% otherwise).

The Earnings Big Picture

The chart below shows S&P 500 expectations for 2026 Q2 in terms of what was achieved in the preceding four periods and what is currently expected for the following three quarters.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The chart below shows the overall earnings picture for the S&P 500 index on an annual basis.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The chart below shows the significant contribution of the Tech sector to the aggregate growth picture. The chart also shows how critical Nvidia, Micron, and Alphabet are to the 2026 aggregate growth tally.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The favorable revisions trend noted earlier in the context of Q3 estimates is also at play with estimates for the last quarter of the year, with mostly the same sectors enjoying positive revisions.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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