WSJ: earnings are inflated by energy and commodities

Soaring profits at oil companies and miners are making earnings look better than the reality of the rest of the stock market, and distorting Wall Street’s favorite valuation tool, the ratio of price to forecast earnings. 

Strip out the energy sector and the expected rise in earnings for the S&P 500 this year drops from 8% to just over 1%, according to data from Refinitiv’s IBES. Strip out miners and other commodity players, too, and earnings for the rest of the market are now expected to fall this year.

~ James Mackintosh, "Energy and Mining Are Making the Stock Market Look Too Good," The Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2022