Earnings Season: Disappointment Ahead

A measly 5.7 percent. That’s all the earnings growth we’re likely to see for the just-ended second quarter of 2012, according to calculations by Thomson Reuters analyst Greg Harrison, based on analysts’ predictions for companies in the S&P 500 index. After nearly three years of double-digit gains in earnings, 2012 is shaping up as a year of not only economic anxiety and market volatility, but also underwhelming profits.