The most important thing to remember about stocks as earnings season kicks off 📈

What's expected for earnings in the future will be a bigger deal than what's happened in the past 📈

S&P 500 EPS are expected to be down 6.8% in Q2. (Source: BMO)

Earnings season is set to kick off next week with the big banks announcing their Q2 financial results.

FactSet estimates S&P 500 earnings per share (EPS) to have declined by 6.8% from a year ago.

This earnings recession is not news. In fact, one of the most popular predictions on Wall Street coming into 2023 was that an earnings recession would cause stocks to tumble in the first half of the year. It was a prediction we now know was very wrong.

With all that in mind, there are two things to remember as earnings season gets underway.