S&P 500 Profit Estimates Cut More Than Usual Last Quarter
Analysts lowered the bar for Standard & Poor’s 500 Index quarterly earnings more than they usually do last quarter. Projected profit growth for companies in the index tumbled by 10 percentage points, the biggest decline since the fourth quarter of 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The cut may allow companies to beat estimates by a relatively wide margin if the first three months of 2015 are any guide, Jonathan Golub, chief equity strategist at RBC Capital Markets, wrote today in a report.