Weakling Profit Recession Is Why Nobody Pulls Cord on Stocks
- S&P 500 earnings poised to match the longest slide since 1936
- Yet peak-to-trough decline is nowhere near recession average
Global Growth in 2% to 3% Channel Since 2010
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The U.S. earnings recession waylaying the seven-year-old bull market has been a long one by any standard. Measured by depth, however, it isn’t registering -- either with history or investors.
Quarterly profits in the S&P 500 Index are about to fall again, extending a streak of declines poised to match the longest earnings retreat on record, data compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices and Bloomberg show. At the same time, net income in the gauge is down 18 percent from its 2014 high -- a retreat that is less than half the size of the last three drops and pales next to the 28 percent average in recessions since 1936.