There's still a long way to go before the fourth quarter earnings season comes to an end, but the first batch of reports indicate just how bad of a quarter it was. Since Alcoa (AA) kicked off earnings season earlier this month, only 45% of US companies have beaten analyst EPS estimates. As shown in the chart below, this would be the lowest reading since at least 1998. Even though analysts have been cutting estimates sharply over the past few months, companies still haven't been able to beat at a better than 50% clip. Hopefully this "beat rate" gets better as earnings season chugs along, but we wouldn't count on it.
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