Earnings growth is hitting the brakes for the fourth quarter. Firms in the S&P 500 were projected back in September to report fourth-quarter earnings growth of 17 percent from the year earlier. But dimmer expectations for global growth and disappointing holiday sales have forced many companies to slash their forecasts, pushing the estimated earnings-growth rate for the quarter closer to 11 percent, according to FactSet.
For the fourth quarter, the consensus growth for the S&P 500 was 10.6 percent through Friday. That compares to the average reported growth of 25.5 percent for the first three quarters of the year, and would represent the lowest expected growth since 7.3 percent in the third quarter of 2017.
And for the first time since that third quarter of 2017, the growth won’t be unanimous across all sectors. The utilities sector is the only one of 11 S&P 500 sectors expected to report an earnings decline.
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