LONDON—As Europe’s third-quarter reporting season kicks into gear, investors are scrutinizing company results for any signs that supply chain strains, labor shortages, and surging energy prices are starting to undermine profits. Confidence in Europe’s earnings resilience has helped the continent’s bourses recover from a wobble in September with the latest Refinitiv I/B/E/S data showing third-quarter profits for the 600 biggest listed European companies are expected to grow 46.7 percent from the same period in 2020. However, while earnings upgrades have consistently outnumbered downgrades since October last year, the weekly ratio between the two has dropped to 1.8 from a 17-year high of 26.3 in August. Arnaud Bauduin, fund manager at Ofi AM in Paris, says there has been a shift in sentiment linked to inflation, which hit a 13-year high in the eurozone last month. “We are suffering from the tail effects of COVID. The economy is not fluid and …
No Place to Hide: Investors to Trawl Europe’s Q3 Earnings for Inflation Clues
October 20, 2021
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