S&P 500 Profit Beats Draw Worst Stock Price Reaction on Record

S&P 500 companies are handily beating earnings estimates, yet unimpressed investors are delivering the worst share-price reactions on record as the outlook for 2026 turns murky.

While it’s still early days, data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence show about 81% of S&P 500 firms have beaten fourth-quarter profit expectations so far. However, their shares have trailed the benchmark by an average of 1.1 percentage points — the worst relative performance across data going back to 2017.