Citi strategist expects a 'beat and hold' earnings season

Nearly three-fourths of the S&P 500 companies (^GSPC) that have reported their first-quarter results so far have posted positive earnings surprises, according to FactSet data. When speaking to Yahoo Finance last week, Evercore ISI's Julian Emanuel described the broader markets (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) as having "digestion problems" this earnings season around positive results.

Citi Director of US Equity Strategy Drew Pettit sits down with The Morning Brief in-studio to weigh in on earnings results, plainly stating that markets haven't "fully reset [the] risk/reward [ratio]" even when factoring in positive earnings data.

"The overall theme we expect for this quarter is beat-and-old. That's not really exciting at this point. I think a lot of companies are going to use the run we've had year-to-date, especially in a lot of the growth names that have outperformed, to maybe temper expectations," Pettit tells Yahoo Finance. "Because we think the back half, it's going to get a little bit harder to beat, especially when we get to Q4."

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.