sp 500 index company earnings for the second quarter were certainly better than expected but it’s debatable whether overall results were actually good given that yearoveryear growth was due only to the strength of one sector energy also overall earningspershare growth has slowed slightly as results from retailers many with quarters that ended in july in the past week reported an overall decline in earnings even as revenue rose now that 479 or 952 of sp 500 companies have reported earnings for the latest quarter through friday morning aggregate blended eps growth which includes reported results and estimates of stilltobereported results was 63 down from nearly 7 growth seen earlier in the month but up from 54 at the end of the first quarter according to factset don’t miss 5 things we’ve learned from earnings season so far how big an impact is inflation having the slowing earnings growth comes after the heavy slate of retailers reported in the latest week including giants like walmart inc wmt  home depot inc hd and target corp tgt although 73 of retailers beat eps expectations eps growth for the group was negative 64 according to ibes data from refinitiv despite the earnings weakness in the retailers sector driven by actions to get rid of excess inventory and by changing consumer spending habits due to historically high inflation revenue for the group rose 91 “a retailerheavy earnings week portrayed a consumer that continues to hold up despite confidence battered by inflation and signs of relief in recent weeks echoed by strongerthanexpected july retail sales data” evercore isi analysts wrote in a research note also read here’s why target was willing to pay so much to sell off excess inventory read more here’s what the big inventory problem for retailers looks like still blended eps growth for the consumer discretionary sector was negative 185 and was negative 157 for the consumer staple sector according to factset of the sp 500’s 11 sectors five have seen eps decline and six have seen eps increase but the main reason for overall eps growth was the energy sector which saw eps rocket 2986 from a year ago as crude oil and naturalgas prices have soared excluding the energy sector sp 500 eps growth would be negative 18 according to ibes data from refinitiv despite the weakness excluding energy it’s still safe to say overall results were better than expected or at the very least a lot better than feared of the companies that reported 778 beat consensus analyst expectations according to refinitiv which compares with a 66 beat rate in a typical quarter going back to 1994 since earnings reporting season kicked off with jp morgan chase  co jpm reporting results before the july 14 market open the sp 500 index spx has run up 112 through friday afternoon trading after it had fallen 160 since the end of the first quarter for the third quarter aggregate sp 500 eps is expected to rise 39 but that’s down 52 earlier this month and well below expectations of 95 growth as of march 31 according to factset for 2022 the growth estimate which was 90 at the end of the first quarter fell to 81 after rising to nearly 11 earlier this month