The Q3 earnings season has gotten underway, with results from 24 S&P 500 members already out. The reporting pace picks up this week, with 78 companies coming out with Q2 results, including 34 S&P 500 members. All the big banks are on this week’s reporting docket, but we have plenty of bellwethers from other sectors as well to give us a good flavor of this earnings season.   

Banks had to deal with a tough operating environment over the summer, with modest gains in the core loan portfolios offsetting the mixed capital market business, soft advisory activity levels, and the seemingly never-ending low interest backdrop. Adjusting for easy comparisons at Bank of America (BAC – Analyst Report), overall profitability for the group is expected to be essentially flat from the same period last year, with revenues constrained by continued net-interest margin pressures and cost cuts as the major tool for earnings growth. Total earnings for the Finance sector are expected to be up +6.5% on -4.2% lower revenues in Q3. Excluding Bank of America, the sector’s Q3 earnings would be flat from the year-earlier level (up only +0.1%).

Here are this week’s key earnings reports:

PC makers were hoping to get a boost from the Windows 10 rollout, but IDC and Gartner data indicates that PC shipments were down in Q3, with IDC putting the year-over-year decline at a bigger-than-expected -11%. It will be interesting to see if Intel was able to buck the trend with the help of its new Skylark chip. Intel beat on the top and the bottom lines in Q2 and is expected to earn 59 cents on $14.2 billion in revenues vs. EPS of 66 cents and revenues of $14.55 billion in the year-earlier quarter.