second quarter earnings

S&P 500 companies have nearly completed the second-quarters earnings season, and overall, investors don't have much to complain about: More than 70% of companies have beaten earnings estimates, the index's earnings have risen more than 19% from last year, and nine of 10 sectors have given us a positive earnings surprise.

Even as investors reel from the stock-market roller coaster this week, Wall Street is moving on, with plenty of news on the way. Next week will bring headlines about retail and gaming earnings, as well as quarterly reports from News Corp., SodaStream and some newly public Chinese firms.

After a stronger-than-expected spring, summer doldrums have hit harder than usual. Merchants' second-quarter reports and a slow economic recovery means retailers have to work hard to boost sales for the year.

Unintentional hilarity is usually not a good thing in a corporate earnings call, but when your results are as strong as those reported Wednesday by Time Warner, you can afford to have a sense of humor.

Blue-chip earnings and an improvement in consumer sentiment helped stocks shrug off disappointing economic growth to end mixed Friday -- but the market still enjoyed its biggest monthly gain in a year.

AstraZeneca's core earnings per share rose 9% in the second quarter, helped by a strong performance in emerging markets. While the British pharmaceutical warned the rest of the year will be "challenging," it also raised its 2010 earnings forecast for the third time this year.

On Thursday, Sanofi-Aventis reported its second-quarter net profit rose 7.6% to 2.48 billion euros, beating expectations. But the French drugmaker warned that earnings may fall for the full year, and it remained silent about its rumored plan to make a friendly bid for Genzyme.

The Federal Reserve's latest Beige Book data confirms what other recent economic reports have suggested: The U.S. economic recovery slowed somewhat in the second quarter, with some regions reporting stalled conditions.

Ford Motor is set to deliver strong earnings when it reports second-quarter results Friday. After disastrously low sales in 2009, the auto industry as a whole has been in recovery mode this year -- and Ford has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the revival.

Internet search pioneer Yahoo reported revenues of $1.6 billion, up 2% over a year ago, but just below analyst expectations. Net income reached 15 cents a share, beating estimates.