Thursday marks the unofficial end to earnings season when Wal-Mart reports its second quarter numbers. Since earnings season started with Alcoa's (AA) report in early July, the S&P 500 is up 13.95%. Below we highlight the S&P 500's performance during all earnings seasons (Alcoa's report date through Wal-Mart's report date) since Q3 '01. As shown, the last two reporting periods have been the best for the market over the last 8 years. Prior to the last two quarters, October 2002 was the best performing earnings season for the S&P 500. Interestingly, the strong performance in October 2002 ignited the 5-year bull market from 2002 to 2007. And the worst earnings season for the market came in the quarter before the October 2002 bottom, so there was a "sell everything" decline and then a "buy everything" rally in back to back earnings seasons in mid-2002. The second worst earnings season for the S&P came during this January's reporting period right before the March bottom.
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