Second quarter earnings season kicks off today, with Alcoa being the first major company to report its earnings, as it traditionally is each quarter. According to research compiled by S&P Capital IQ, revenues for the S&P 500 are expected to be down slightly from a year ago, with an overall decrease of 0.3 percent.
First quarter revenue for the S&P 500 had been up 1.1 percent, and the fourth quarter of 2012 had shown revenue growth of 4.7 percent. So this quarter's decline, if the forecasts are accurate, would be a clear step down from recent quarters.
There is a bright side to this though: S&P Capital IQ does predict that earnings per share this quarter for the S&P 500 are likely to be up by 2.9 percent over the year-earlier period. Earnings growth was 2.1 percent in the first quarter, so we could very well exceed that, which would be good for stock prices.
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