Company earnings season is wrapping up, with just a few big names left on the calendar: Walmart, Target and Home Depot report this week. 

So far though, it’s looking like corporate America is hanging in there just fine. Profits in the second quarter are on track for about 12% year-over-year growth, according to an analysis by FactSet. 

Heading into this second quarter earnings season, analysts set a pretty low bar for corporate America. Why? 

“Oh, that’s an easy one. It’s the tariff rates that were so extreme,” said Jeffrey Buchbinder, chief equity strategist at LPL Financial. 

He said the threatened rates were so high and there was so little certainty about when they might take effect.

“Just the overall kind of muddied tariff backdrop I think caused analysts to be really conservative. Of course, we now know that they were too conservative,” he said. With year-over-year earnings growth on track to more than double many of those analyst’s predictions. 

A lot of that growth was driven by tech companies after their big investments in AI started to pay off.

But Stephanie Link, chief investment strategist at Hightower Advisors, said big banks also fared better than expected, as President Donald Trump’s administration eased oversight on that sector.

“There’s no question the financial services industry is seeing just better visibility because of deregulation,” she said.

And, resilient spending helped consumer-facing companies defy gloomy expectations. 

Caleb Silver, editor in chief of Investopedia, pointed to airlines that opted to not even guess how the second quarter would go. 

“Well they’ve changed their tune because they've seen pretty strong demand, especially on the high end,” he said.

If corporate earnings and sales keep growing, Silver said that could prevent layoffs and help blunt the impact of tariffs for consumers.  

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist of CFRA Research, said that’s something for the Federal Reserve to consider as it convenes in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this week. 

“It’s almost as if the Fed are pulling petals from a daisy and really aren’t sure where they’re going to end up,” he said.

Stovall said the labor market may be showing some cracks and it’s still not clear how higher tariffs will impact inflation. But for now, corporate results are one bright spot in a mixed economic picture.