Q1 Earnings: So Far, So Good
YoY Revenue +10.9% YoY net income +34.0% YoY cost of Revenue +9.1% We revved up the Calcbench Earnings Tracker this weekend for our first analysis of Q1 2026 earnings data. So far, among the large companies that dominate the beginning of earnings season, the overall numbers look solid. Figure 1, below, tells the tale. With roughly data from roughly 800 firms, revenue is up 10.9 percent from the year-ago period, operating income up 20.6 percent, and net income up 34 percent. Can’t complain about performance like that. Then again, notice the cost of revenue: up 9.7 percent. Notice operating expenses, up 9.8 percent. Notice SG&A expenses, up 8.1 percent. Altogether, that suggests that costs are rising swiftly for large companies. If they want to keep operating margins high, they’ll need to raise prices, cut costs (which usually means layoffs), or both. Meanwhile, we also have capex spending up 35 percent from the year-earlier period, ...