What if determining stock market direction was as simple as wetting your finger in the outdoors and holding it up to the sky? A cool breeze telling you if the wind was coming out of the northwest?

Not surprisingly, it has never been quite that easy. While we have trendlines that we base on moving averages — 50-day, 100-day, 200-day — the predictive value of price change information has always been imprecise.

Yesterday we highlighted the percentage of companies that have beaten earnings estimates this reporting period. Below we break down the beat rate by sector. Four sectors have a higher beat rate than the entire market, while six have a lower beat rate. The Consumer Discretionary sector has the highest beat rate this earnings season at 80.6%. Consumer Discretionary is followed closely by Industrials at 79.8%. Consumer Staples and Technology are both right around 76%. Energy, Telecom, and Financials are all tied at 60% for the lowest earnings beat rate. Materials is at 69.4%, and Health Care is at 70.3%.

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Barry Ritholtz provides the following chart, originally from the New York Times, but updated for The Big Picture by Steve Barry.

For larger image, click here.