IT MAKES SENSE for shareholders to closely track corporate earnings: It is the only chance for them to get a thorough report card on how business is going and often provides them with hints on the outlook for the months ahead.
Whether that persuades them to buy stocks is another story. Much attention gets paid to earnings every quarter, but overall market performance during “earnings periods” significantly trails the returns seen at other times of the year, according to research by Birinyi Associates Inc.
