Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action news and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Monday, July 31st I'm your host Kim Kahn. Our top story in today's session.

Wall Street heads into another busy earnings week with 15% of the S&P 500 by market cap reporting and 20% of the NASDAQ. Society General

all has seven things to know for Q2 earnings so far. 81% of firms have beaten estimates on EPS, the highest figure since third quarter 2021.

62% of beaten estimates on sales, lower than last quarter, suggesting margins are where the surprises are.

The average EPS beat is 5.8% versus the sales beat of 1.3%.

Margins are surprised, most likely driven by cost cuts, and potentially also interest income rising strongly with the Fed hikes.

Shares of companies that beat underperformed the market by 0.2%, companies that missed underperformed the market by 0.2%. Companies that missed underperformed the market by 0.5% two days after reporting.

Strongest EPS beats have been concentrated in growth sectors like communication services,

Infotech, and consumer, both staples and discretionary,

while financials have lagged. Quality and momentum has seen the strongest beats

with value in small size the lowest.

The S&P 500 2Q EPS tracker is up 2% this quarter but the 2023-24 EPS

forecasts are flat. Now I look at today's trading. Stocks are drifting to start the week.

That's not surprising given the big tech earnings coming out and payrolls at the end of the week.

The S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq are up around 0.1%, but choppy.

Rates are lower.

The 10-year Treasury yield is hovering around 3.95%.

Oil and gold are higher, and Bitcoin is a little lower.

Among active stocks, Ford recalled more than 870,000 newer F-150 pickup trucks in the U.S.

on concerns that the electric parking

brakes could turn on unexpectedly. The recall covers certain pickups from

...