All 1,683 US Non-Oil & Gas Companies and Excluding Berkshire Hathaway With Stock Market Caps of More Than $1 Bil Which Released Their June 2018 Quarter End or July 2018 Quarter End Earnings By August 24, 2018 Generated June 2018 and July 2018 Quarter Total US GAAP Pretax Income (PTI) From Continuing Operations of $389.747 Bil, Up 7.2% From Their Total PTI of $363.688 Bil in Their 2017 Comparable Quarters. This 7.2% Total PTI Growth in the June and July 2018 Quarters (The Second Full Quarter of the Trump Tax Cuts Act) Is a Marked Deceleration From Their 10.6% Total PTI Growth in the Their March and April 2018 Quarters (The First Full Quarter of the Trump Tax Cuts Act) Over Their 2017 Comparable Quarters..... $380.544 Bil in Their March and April 2018 Quarters vs. $344.231 Bil in Their March and April 2017 Quarters ........................................................................................

Berkshire Hathaway Was Isolated Because a New FASB Required It To Reflect In Its Pretax Earnings (PTI) Starting in 2018 the Changes in the Market Prices of Its Huge Investment in Equity Securities.  Its Largest Equity Investment Was in Apple Which Resulted in a Huge Pretax Earnings Charge in Its March 2018 Quarter and An Even Larger Pretax Earnings Increase in Its June 2018 Quarter Due To the Significant Changes in Apple's Stock Market Price.  Berkshire Hathaway's Pretax Income Was $15.098 Bil in Its June 2018 Quarter, Up 146% From Its PTI of $6.129 Bil in Its June 2018 Quarter.  On the Other Hand, Berkshire Hathaway Generated a Pretax Loss of $1.523 Bil in Its March 2018 Quarter, Down 127% From Its Pretax Income of $5.688 Bil in Its March 2017 Quarter.

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The 43 US Oil & Gas Companies Posted Total Pretax Income (PTI) of $26.610 Bil in the June 2018 Quarter, Up 274% From Their Total PTI of $7.916 Bil in Their June 2017 Quarter, a Huge Acceleration From Their Already Exceptional 58% Total Pretax Income Growth in Their March 2018 Quarter

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From a review of SEC filings, the below chart shows a recap of the Total US GAAP Pretax Income (Loss) From Continuing Operations for the June or July 2018, the June or July 2017, the March or April 2018 and the March or April 2017 Quarters for the 1,827 US Companies including Partnerships and REITs with June or July Quarter Ends, which have reported their June or July 2018 Quarter Earnings By August 24, 2018 and which had stock market caps of above $1 Bil  in the second quarter of 2018.

I will update the below chart when additional companies report their June, July or August 2018 quarter earnings.  It should be interesting to see how the total quarterly earnings growth deceleration changes from the 10.6% to 7.2% experienced so far.

Two Companies which came out of Bankruptcy and subsequently posted Large Reorganization Gains or Losses and/or Large Restructuring Charges were excluded below.

My Focus is on Pretax Income Rather Than After-Tax Net Income Because the Lower Effective Income Tax Rate in 2018 is Simply a Transfer of Financial Wealth From the US Federal Government to US Corporations.  It Has Nothing Whatsoever to do with Company Performance.

		US	US			US	US
		GAAP	GAAP			GAAP	GAAP
		Total	Total			Total	Total
	Recap Totals So Far of	Pretax	Pretax			Pretax	Pretax
	US Companies With	Income	Income	Better		Income	Income	Better
	Market Caps Above $1 Bil	June Qtr	June Qtr	(Worse)		March Qtr	March Qtr	(Worse)
# of	Releasing Their June or July 2018	or July Qtr	or July Qtr	%		or April Qtr	or April Qtr	%
Cos	Quarter Earnings Through 8-24-18	2018	2017	Change		2018	2017	Change
		mils $	mils $			mils $	mils $
	June 2018 Quarters
456	…..Market Cap > $10 Bil	360,454	308,745	16.7%		339,677	307,370	10.5%
312	…..Market Cap $5-10 Bil	26,871	21,938	22.5%		23,590	20,667	14.1%
1,017	…..Market Cap $1-5 Bil	23,919	22,277	7.4%		24,468	20,436	19.7%
1,785	…..Market Cap > $1 Bil	411,244	352,961	16.5%		387,735	348,473	11.3%
	July 2018 Quarter
42	…..Market Cap > $1 Bil	23,212	24,772	-6.3%		24,700	23,457	5.3%
	June & July 2018 Quarters
1,827	…..Market Cap > $1 Bil	434,455	377,733	15.0%		412,435	371,930	10.9%
	Eliminations
(1)	Berkshire Hathaway (BH)	15,098	6,129	146.3%		(1,523)	5,688	-126.8%
1,826	Market Cap > $1 Bil No BH	419,357	371,604	12.9%		413,958	366,242	13.0%
(143)	Oil & Gas Cos	29,610	7,916	274.1%		33,404	22,011	51.8%
1,683	Market Cap > $1 Bil No BH & No Oil & Gas	389,747	363,688	7.2%		380,554	344,231	10.6%