AGGREGATE EARNINGS AND RETURNS IN BRAZIL

We used the method employed in Kothari, Lewellen and Warner (2006) to show the relationship between aggregate earnings and market returns in Brazil in the period from 1995 to 2017. Considering the findings found by Kothari, Lewellen and Warnet (2006), our results indicate that the theory of Bernard and Thomas (1990) is more consistent with the US market than with the Brazilian market, signaling that the aggregate post-earnings announcement drift tends to be larger in markets with higher earnings persistence, like Brazil. Our findings also indicate that the relationship between aggregate returns and earnings in Brazil tends to be positive for the current period and the next two quarters, corroborating the Sadka and Sadka (2009) study. Considering that the predictability of earnings in the US market is higher than that in Brazil, our results also support the argument by He and Hu (2014) that the relationship between aggregate earnings and returns is linked to each country’s level of disclosure. However, new evidences reveal the influence of high interest rates on financial market results, suggesting that expectations of increased interest rates tend to reduce aggregate current returns in Brazil due to the possible migration of capital to lower risk, given the attractiveness of their returns in an environment of high inflation.

From Accounting to Economics: The Role of Aggregate Special Items in Gauging the State of the Economy

We propose and find that aggregate special items conveys more information about future real GDP growth than aggregate earnings before special items because the former contains advance news about future economic outcomes. A two-stage rational expectations test reveals that professional forecasters fully understand the information content of aggregate earnings before special items but underestimate that of aggregate special items when revising their GDP forecasts. Using vector autoregressions, we show that aggregate earnings before special items has predictive ability for GDP because, as suggested by previous literature, it acts as a proxy for corporate profits included in national income. In contrast, aggregate special items captures changes in the behavior of economic agents on a timely basis, which in turn have real effects on firms' investment and hiring, as well as consumers' wealth and spending. Consistent with news-driven business cycles, we find that aggregate special items produces synchronized movements across macroeconomic aggregates.

Another Look at the Macroeconomic Information Content of Aggregate Earnings: Evidence from the Labor Market

We examine the macroeconomic information content of aggregate earnings from the labor market's perspective. We use insights from the labor economics literature to characterize the information contained in aggregate GAAP earnings and its components that is relevant for predicting aggregate job creation and destruction. Our results suggest that not only does aggregate earnings news convey information about future labor market aggregates, but its information content is incremental to other macroeconomic variables at near-term horizons. Further, the source of this information stems primarily from two earnings components: aggregate core earnings and special items. Shocks to core earnings signal persistent changes in economy-wide profitability that predict aggregate job creation up to four quarters ahead, while shocks to special items predict job destruction up to one quarter. Taken together, our results suggest that aggregate earnings contain useful information about future labor market conditions, with the nature of such information varying across earnings components.

Signal on the Margin: Behavior of Levered Investors and Future Economic Conditions*

Margin capacity, defined as the aggregate excess debt capacity of investors buying securities on margin, strongly predicts (i) lower S&P 500 returns, (ii) lower growth in aggregate earnings, dividends, employment, and overall economic activity, (iii) higher macro, financial, and policy uncertainty, (iv) lower interest rates, (v) tighter lending standards by banks, and (vi) lower intermediary equity capital. High margin capacity is a precursor, not a response, to borrowing and intermediary constraints and higher volatility. It typically arises when levered investors with profitable past positions limit their leverage. We interpret that it reflects informed investors’ conservatism ahead of bad times.

On the Expected Earnings Hypothesis Explanation of the Aggregate Returns–Earnings Association Puzzle

We provide strong support for the underappreciated expected earnings hypothesis of a negative correlation between aggregate stock returns and earnings. For 1970–2000, our powerful modeling strategy incorporating macroeconomic information reveals that aggregate returns are significantly and negatively correlated with expected aggregate earnings changes but uncorrelated with unexpected aggregate earnings changes. However, this negative correlation changes after 2000, perhaps from heightened volatility or accounting changes. We also show that underlying macroeconomic information explains the power of aggregate earnings to predict future gross domestic product growth.