executives detailing their secondquarter earnings talked about a recession more than they have since the last actual recession hit the us and anxieties about an economic downturn are weighing on forecasts for the earnings season to come the word “recession” came up in the quarterly earnings calls of 240 sp 500 spx companies during earnings calls held between june 15 and thursday according to a factset analysis published friday that’s the highest number since at least 2010 factset senior earnings analyst john butters wrote and it breaks a prior record of 212 that was hit during the first quarter of 2020 when covid19 anxieties descended on the economy among the latest executives to call out a recession was rh rh ceo gary friedman who said the word nearly a dozen times during the highend furniture retailer’s earnings call on thursday following its secondquarter results “people keep saying are we going to be in a recession we’re in a recession anybody who thinks we’re not in a recession is crazy” he said “the housing market is in a recession and it’s just getting started so it’s probably going to be a difficult 12 to 18 months in our industry” other pandemicera earningscall refrains were more frequent the factset analysis found 412 of the sp 500 companies cited “inflation” during their secondquarter earnings calls while 325 discussed “supply chain” those factors didn’t seem to have much of an effect on secondquarter results however as most sp 500 companies reported secondquarter results that were better than expected butters reported that 75 of sp 500 companies beat earnings expectations and 70 topped sales forecasts but some analysts expect those secondquarter anxieties to spill over into results for the third quarter thirdquarter earningspershare estimates have slipped 55 since june 30 butters wrote that’s the largest drop for a quarter since q2 of 2020 and far ahead of the fiveyear average of 23 that change could stem from disappointing guidance for the third quarter 63 sp 500 companies have issued negative earnings forecasts factset said while 40 issued positive forecasts “analysts have been more pessimistic in their revisions to earnings estimates for sp 500 companies for the third quarter compared to recent quarters while companies have been slightly less pessimistic in their earnings outlooks for the third quarter compared to recent quarters” butters wrote in the report “however both analysts and companies have been more pessimistic in terms of earnings expectations for q3 compared to recent averages” the call to put on your calendar oracle corp oracle orcl laid off hundreds of staff last month the wall street journal reported with most of the cuts landing in the software developer’s advertising and customer experience segment the software company has yet to detail those layoffs though including no notice to the state of california’s employment development department as required by law expect some questions about cost cuts and layoffs in oracle’s conference call following firstquarter results on monday the company in june completed a 283 billion acquisition of cerner whose software is used by hospitals and others in the health industry to examine patient data and markets could get more clarity on whether further cuts are on the horizon adobe adbe reports fiscal thirdquarter results on thursday but the numbers to watch will be in the financial forecasts from the digitalmedia design company amid concerns about weakening software demand ubs analysts wrote last week that they heard from several adobe partners and customers who described an environment marked by tighter budgets and “macrospend pressures across both the creative and digital experience segments” the analysts said “a tough spending backdrop may take some zip out of the 4qnov outlook” for the maker of software platforms like photoshop and illustrator russia’s invasion of ukraine and the pandemic’s contortions to the economy and supply chains pushed up oil grain and transportation costs which have filtered through to what customers pay for goods as businesses raise their own prices meanwhile the federal reserve’s interestrate hikes intended to head off an overheated economy will push up borrowing costs the job market has remained tight albeit with some signs of easing and analysts have wondered how much higher prices will bite into consumer demand