The business press generally reports news in quarterly earnings announcements based on the difference between actual earnings and two salient benchmarks: earnings of the same quarter in the previous year, and a consensus drawn from a distribution of forecasts by financial analysts. We evaluate...

This paper examines how intrinsic circadian rhythm variation in the human body contributes to predictable day and night changes in the characteristics of earnings forecasts made by financial analysts. We find evidence supporting a casual relation between analyst performance and the day and night...