IS THE EARNINGS recession over? Many observers of corporate life have been asking this question as America's listed companies report last quarter's results in January and February. The omens going into the decade's first earnings season did not look good. The current expansion is the longest in American history, so a downturn seemed inevitable. Indeed, the first three quarters of 2019 saw year-on-year declines in earnings forthe s&p 500 indexof leading firms. Financial analysts had forecast another drop, of 2% or so, in the fourth, marking the first such prolonged malaise since 2015-16, when America suffered a manufacturing slump.
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