That the US is set to have its third consecutive quarter with revenue declines (followed by the fourth in a few months, when all the misses will be blamed on - what else - the Tea Party), is by now well-known and greeted by stocks which have given up on any fundamentals (that this happens even as "one-time" restructuring charges which actually recur every quarter, such as JPM's most recent $9 billion in fees, are added back to non-GAAP EPS, and make EPS increase is just as well-known). But it is not so much the US we focus on in this blurb, but Europe, where for some mindboggling reason the consensus has rapidly shifted in recent months, toward a prevailing sentiment of recovery. So here is a quick datapoint from Deutsche putting the European "recovery" in context.
[3]
You read that right: of 17 companies on the DJStoxx600 reporting so far in Q3, 13 have missed.
Welcome to the [European] recovery, indeed.