Corporate America’s Sales Beats Are Running at a Four-Year High

The S&P 500 is on course to have the most companies delivering sales beats in about four years this earnings season, with Corporate America seeming to cope just fine with the impact of tariffs.

Almost 70% of index members to have reported so far have exceeded third-quarter sales estimates, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence earnings tracker. That’s the highest proportion of positive surprises since the post-Covid revival in the final three months of 2021.

US companies appear to be fairly unscathed by tariffs so far, protecting their margins through a combination of price increases and cost cuts. Meanwhile, the ...