EDITOR'S NOTE
The stock market squeaked out more record highs on Friday as Wall Street locked up its best month of the year despite rough earnings reports from Apple and Amazon.
October was a banner period for the market, as the S&P 500 had its biggest monthly jump since November 2020. The gain of 6.9% came as a solid string of earnings beats overshadowed some high-profile misses and constant chatter from executives about inflation and snarled supply chains.
"I think 'resiliency' is the word for the day, and it's the word for 2020 and 2021. But I think for 2022, it's going to be 'consistency' — consistency of earnings, consistency of fundamentals," BMO Capital Markets chief investment strategist Brian Belski said on CNBC's "Halftime Report." 
With more than half of S&P 500 companies having reported their third-quarter results, there are signs that the expectations for the year's final months won't be quite as high for corporate America, possibly making that consistency easier to achieve.
"The fourth quarter marked the sixth consecutive quarter in which the bottom-up EPS estimate increased during the first month of the quarter, which is the longest streak since FactSet began tracking this metric in 2002. … However, it should also be noted that the fourth quarter marked the lowest percentage increase in the bottom-up EPS estimate during these six quarters," FactSet's John Butters said in a note.
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