A total of 2,450 companies reported earnings during the just-completed first quarter earnings season.  Of these 2,450 reports, exactly 1,500 of them reported better than expected EPS numbers.  That’s a 61.2% earnings “beat” rate.

Below is chart that shows the one-day stock price reaction for every single earnings beat, miss, or inline report this season.  As you know, not all “beats” translate into price gains, but on average, the stocks that beat EPS estimates this season gained 1.97% on their earnings reaction days.

While 61.2% of companies beat EPS estimates, 29.8% missed estimates, and these stocks averaged a one-day decline of 3.21% on their earnings reaction days.  Given that misses are much less common than beats, it makes sense that stock prices get hit harder on a miss than they gain on a beat.

Finally, 9% of companies reported inline EPS this season.  In this day and age where companies are pressured to “beat the quarter,” it should come as no surprise that the average stock that reported inline EPS fell in reaction to the news.  As shown in the chart, the average stock that reported inline numbers fell 1.59% on its earnings reaction day.

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While manufacturing activity in the New York area sunk back to pre-election levels this month, the Philadelphia area continues to hum along.  This month’s release of the Philly Fed General Business Conditions Index showed an increase from 22.0 in April up to 38.8.  That’s the second highest level of the recovery behind only March’s reading of 43.3.

Looking at the internals of the report shows a much less robust picture though.  As shown in the table to the right, just three of the report’s subcomponents increased this month while six declined.  Of the three that did increase, two saw moves worth noting, which we highlight below.  First, the index for Shipments rose to 39.1, which is the fifth highest reading in the history of the survey (dating back to 1980).  The only months that were stronger were July 2004, December 1993, October 1988, and December 1987.  In addition to Shipments, Average Workweek also surged, rising to 21.7 from 18.9.  For that component, there have only been two other months (October 1987 and March 1984) of higher readings.

Individual investor sentiment took a major hit this week as Washington headlines give investors another excuse to not like equities.  According to the weekly AAII survey, bullish sentiment dropped from 32.73% down to 23.85%.  That drop is the largest one-week decline since July 2015 and takes bullish sentiment down to its lowest level since last November’s election.  Also, in case you are still keeping score, bullish sentiment has now been below 50% for a record 124 straight weeks.

While bullish sentiment tanked, they didn’t all move into the bearish camp.  As shown in the chart below, bearish sentiment increased by less than half as much as bullish sentiment declined.  However, at a level of 34.25%, more than a third of individual investors consider themselves bearish.

Neutral sentiment surged back above 40% this week, rising from 37.05% up to 41.9% to its highest weekly reading since the election.  While investors were more than happy to sit on their hands in the weeks and months leading up the election, now it seems as though they are stepping to the sidelines to wait out what becomes of the Russia investigations.