Fewer S&P 500 Companies Discussing “Recession” on Earnings Calls for 4th Straight Quarter

Given continuing concerns in the market about a possible economic slowdown or recession, did more S&P 500 companies comment on recession during their earnings conference calls for the second quarter relative to recent quarters?

The answer is no. FactSet Document Search (which allows users to search for key words or phrases across multiple document types) was used to answer this question. Through Document Search, FactSet searched for the term “recession” in the conference call transcripts of all the S&P 500 companies that conducted earnings conference calls from June 15 through August 31.

Of these companies, 62 cited the term “recession” during their earnings call for the second quarter. After peaking in Q2 2022, the number of S&P 500 companies citing “recession” on earnings calls has declined for four straight quarters. The number of S&P 500 companies citing “recession” on earnings calls for Q2 2023 is 45% below the number in Q1 2023 (113), 58% below the number in Q4 2022 (147), 66% below the number in Q3 2022 (184), and 74% below the number in Q2 2022 (238). In fact, this quarter will mark the lowest number of S&P 500 companies citing “recession” on earnings calls for a quarter since Q4 2021 (14).

It is also interesting to note the number of S&P 500 companies citing “recession” on earnings calls for Q2 2023 is below the 5-year average of 82 and just slightly above the 10-year average of 60.

At the sector level, the Financials sector has the highest number (22) of S&P 500 companies citing “recession” on Q2 earnings calls and the highest percentage (32%) of companies citing “recession” on Q2 earnings calls.

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