S&P 500 Profit Estimates Slashed After Third-Quarter Misses

Analysts are slicing profit forecasts for U.S. companies in the fourth quarter and 2009 as third- period results miss projections at the highest rate in almost 11 years.``Estimates have been coming down with a vengeance,'' said
Dirk van Dijk, director of research at Zacks Investment Research Inc. in Chicago. ``It's just plain ugly out there.''Companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index may see fourth-quarter earnings advance 15 percent, down from 42 percent projected at the end of August, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts' estimates. Profits in 2009 may grow 13 percent, analysts say now, compared with the 24 percent predicted two months ago.Financial firms worldwide have posted almost $700 billion in credit-related losses and writedowns since the beginning of 2007, in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
The S&P 500 is down 35 percent this year, headed for its worst annual performance since 1937.``Wall Street has underestimated the negative impact on corporate earnings of the ongoing global economic deterioration,'' said Alec Young, an S&P equity strategist in New York. ``We're still finding out where the bottom is.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFLZknOvuU2k&refer=home

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Profits in 2009 may grow 13 percent?????
Η προσγείωση θα είναι πιο ανώμαλη από ότι αναμένεται...