New York, July 9, 2026, 05:37 EDT
PepsiCo kicks off the first big stretch of U.S. earnings season on Thursday, with results for the quarter ended June 13 coming July 9. Delta Air Lines reports Friday and has its 2Q earnings webcast set for July 10 at 10:00 a.m. ET. After that, major banks start to move onto the reporting schedule next week.
The timing is key with profit forecasts now higher. John Butters at FactSet said the S&P 500’s bottom-up EPS estimate climbed 3.4% from March 31 to June 30, marking the strongest quarterly gain since Q2 2021.
Company forecasts before final results have come in stronger than usual. FactSet said 63 out of 111 S&P 500 names giving second-quarter EPS guidance issued positive outlooks, marking the highest percentage since Q3 2021. Tech firms had a record number of upbeat EPS forecasts and are on track for 63.3% earnings growth.
PepsiCo is up first among the consumer names. Analysts at Visible Alpha, cited by Investopedia, see second-quarter revenue at $24 billion, a 6% rise year over year, and adjusted EPS at $2.19. The same note said PepsiCo shares were down about 16% since February highs as investors looked at inflation and softer snack sales in North America.
Delta is expected to show strong travel demand but higher costs. Wall Street sees second-quarter revenue at $19.02 billion, up 14%, according to Visible Alpha. But profit could be squeezed. Analysts estimate adjusted EPS at $1.51, down from $2.10 a year ago, as higher fuel prices hit earnings.
Markets aren’t calm. Oil moved up after new fighting in the Gulf stirred up worries about inflation, Reuters said Thursday. Traders started to price in a higher chance the Fed may need to hike rates again this year. Wall Street futures inched up only slightly.
Banks are up next as a gauge for capital markets. Reuters said JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo will report on July 14. Angad Chhatwal at Coalition Greenwich put market revenue growth for the biggest global banks at at least 15%. Jamie Vickers from the same group said equities are set to drive most of that. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon said investment-banking fees could climb by 10% or more. Bank of America Co-President Jim DeMare said markets revenue could beat the earlier 15% target. Wells Fargo CFO Mike Santomassimo said net interest income should “step up.” Reuters
The risk is the first reports could show a tighter market than forecast. Rising oil stands to hit both fuel and grocery bills, raising Delta’s costs and maybe cutting PepsiCo’s volumes. Tim Waterer at KCM Trade said oil flows in the Strait of Hormuz remain “up in the air.” Aneeka Gupta at WisdomTree called the supply recovery “real but incomplete.” Reuters
AI is also a concern, but it’s not the typical story. The question isn’t if demand is there, but if companies can keep up the spending that investors are counting on. FactSet is showing a record number of tech firms giving upbeat guidance, but strong results alone might not hold if management comes across as cautious about the next quarter.
Investors won’t only look at EPS beats this time. Volumes and margins, or how much profit companies are getting from sales, plus what management says about the rest of 2026 could matter more, since analysts raised estimates during the quarter instead of cutting.
If PepsiCo, Delta and banks deliver solid numbers, the market could get some breathing room ahead of the bigger tech earnings. But if results come in soft, it could show the market is still betting too heavily on AI, energy and trading groups to carry earnings growth.
