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MID-JULY is the time to bare it all. On the beach, this involves swimwear that, au fait with the latest fashion, varies in skimpiness from extreme to disturbing. In the boardroom, it consists of a ritual of corporate exhibitionism known as the summer earnings season. Results from the second three months of the year will trickle out over the next few weeks. Back in April it looked on course to be a distinctly awful quarter. President Donald Trump had just launched his trade war, sending stockmarkets down and bond yields up. Bottom lines were imperilled by rising costs and slowing economic growth. Think walking around in tiny Speedos makes you feel naked? Try fielding analysts’ questions about plunging profits on an earnings call.
