Stocks shrug off downturn fears as number of companies citing ‘recession’ drops

The number of companies mentioning recession on their quarterly earnings calls is falling, as stocks extend a big, three-week rally and investors weigh chances for a soft-landing for the U.S. economy.

Eleven percent of companies in the S&P 500 index cited “recession” during their conference calls on earnings results for the third quarter, well below peaks last year and in 2020 that were each more than 40%, according to a DataTrek Research note emailed Monday, citing FactSet data.

Still,…