NEW YORK, June 22 (Xinhua) -- The aggregate earnings with member companies of the S&P 500 Index are expected to dip year on year again for the third quarter of 2019, according to a report released by market research firm FactSet Research Systems Inc. on Friday.
Analysts' expectations on year-on-year growth rate of combined earnings with S&P 500 Index member companies for the third quarter shifted to -0.3 percent as of June 21 from 0.2 percent on June 7, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the overall earnings of S&P 500 Index members for the second quarter of 2019 are projected to drop 2.6 percent from a year ago following a year-on-year decrease in the first quarter of 2019, said FactSet.
The total earnings with member companies of the S&P 500 Index would fall 2.9 percent year on year in the second quarter in comparison with 0.2 percent of year-on-year decline in the first quarter, said Zacks Investment Research Inc. on Friday.
"If the index reports a year-over-year decline in earnings in both the second quarter and the third quarter, it will mark the first time the index will have reported three consecutive quarters of year-over-year earnings declines since the fourth quarter of 2015 through the second quarter of 2016," the report noted.
As for the third quarter, only two of the 11 sectors under the index are expected to see year-on-year decrease in earnings with the energy sector and information technology sector to report 13 percent and 9 percent of drop in earnings, respectively, according to the report.
Still, analysts expect the aggregate earnings of S&P 500 Index member companies to register 6.7 percent of year-on-year growth in the last quarter of 2019 and 10.3 percent of expansion in the first quarter of 2020, respectively.
The aggregate earnings of listed companies are seen as an important indicator of macro economy. U.S. economic growth slowed down from 4.2 percent in the second quarter of 2018 to 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 and 3.1 percent in the first quarter of 2019.
In the second and third quarters of 2018, overall earnings of the S&P 500 Index member companies expanded 25.5 percent and 25.8 percent year on year, respectively.
The S&P 500 Index is one of the most commonly followed equity indexes, and many consider it one of the best representations of the U.S. stock market.
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