Stocks Have an Earnings Problem

Strong first quarter earnings aren’t pushing stocks higher. What’s next?

U.S. companies lately have only good news to share with their investors. That might actually foretell a problem for stocks.

First-quarter earnings season is shaping up to be a particularly strong one. More than half of companies in the S&P 500 have reported results and about 80% of those have topped analyst profit expectations. On average, earnings per share in those companies have grown by about 23% from a year ago, according to FactSet.

...