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NEW YORK (AP) - After nearly four years of stratospheric profit growth for Standard & Poor's 500 companies, investors are about to see earnings come back down to earth.
Hundreds of other U.S. companies — including such big names as Citigroup Inc., Intel Corp. and Caterpillar Inc. — are scheduled to issue their quarterly reports in the coming days. This will be the first time in 19 quarters that companies within S&P's flagship index won't even come close to reaching double-digit profit growth.
Earnings growth for the first three months of the year is expected to slump to 3.8 percent, and likely grow 6.7 percent for the year, according to Thomson Financial. That's down from 8.9 percent growth in the fourth quarter, when companies barely missed the double-digit mark.
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