"Earnings are the mother's milk of the stock market," is the oft-repeated anthem of a million marching lemmings; parroting the same phrase come hell or high-water in the dismal hope that they can gather moar assets-under-management, garner moar fees, and make moar TV appearances. However, as the chart below shows, we suspect perhaps given the reality of earnings expectations that the new normal mantra for stocks-for-the-long-term should be - "Central Bank liquidity is the PCP of the stock market."
it would appear the 'mother's milk' is souring...
[5]
(h/t @Not_Jim_Cramer)
and furthermore, since September 2011 earnings have been stagnant - when a multitude of indicators (macro and market) began to decouple from stocks,
[6]
- driven almost 100% by buybacks...
[7]
(h/t @RonnieSpence)