S&P 500’s 35.2% Decline in 2Q09 Earnings Not Getting Analysts Down

Second quarter earnings of companies in the S&P 500 may be down 35.2%, but the results are not as bad as analysts had predicted, Investor’s Business Daily reports. Thus, many fund managers and analysts are expecting growth to return in the fourth quarter and continue into the first half of 2010.

“So from that standpoint,” said John Butters, director of U.S. earnings research at Thomson Reuters, “this season is encouraging. One way of looking at it is that, year over year, this [simply] is not a good earnings season.”