While stocks have reported much better than expected numbers this earnings season, the year over year change in earnings has still been pretty bad. Overall, S&P 500 earnings are down 31.7% versus Q2 '07. Energy has seen the biggest decline in earnings at -67.9% (finally Financials don't top the list), followed by Materials (-65.1%), Financials (-45.9%), and Industrials (-34.1%). These four are all underperforming the S&P 500 in terms of earnings. Six sectors are doing better than the index as a whole, and only two have seen year over year earnings growth -- Health Care and Utilities.
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