Every three months, we take a snapshot of the expectations for future earnings in the S&P 500 at approximately the midpoint of the current quarter, shortly after most U.S. firms have announced their previous quarter's earnings. Today's snapshot of the trailing year earnings per share for the S&P 500 confirms that the stock market's earnings have continued to rebound off their 2016-Q3 bottom, where they have now finally surpassed their pre-earnings recession levels.
The recovery in the S&P 500's earnings has been a significant factor in boosting the value of the S&P 500 since the index bottomed at 1829.08 on 12 February 2017. The index has since gone on to set its all time record closing value of 2477.83 just three weeks ago (26 July 2017).
As a general rule, the picture of the S&P 500's forecast earnings per share provided by Standard and Poor snapped at any give time tends to be quite optimistic, where the earnings growth indicated by their future trajectory will most likely not be as robust as projected.
Data Source
Silverblatt, Howard. S&P Indices Market Attribute Series. S&P 500 Monthly Performance Data. S&P 500 Earnings and Estimate Report. [Excel Spreadsheet]. Last Updated 10 August 2017. Accessed 13 August 2017.