And with this quarter's earnings almost done, attention shifts to Q1 2016 where things are going from great to bad to absolutely abysmal. Here, it appears that Wall Street was just a "tad overoptimistic" on first quarter's earnings, as consensus has imploded from a +5% expected increase in YoY EPS as of September 25, to a -7.4% plunge according to Factset (and even worse according to Bloomberg).

The companies have validated this implosion in earnings: for Q1 88 companies have issued negative EPS guidance and 22 companies have issued positive EPS guidance. Additionally it's not just energy: in Q1 the following sectors are expected to post annual EPS declines: Energy (-92.8%), Materials (-19.5%), Industrials (-10.9%), Info Tech (-7.3%), Financials (-4.3%), Consumer Staples (-2.6%), and Utilities (-0.2%). In fact, only three of ten sectors are expected to see their EPS rise: Healthcare, Consumer Discretionary and Telecom Services.