Devastating Fourth Quarter Earnings-Howard Silverblatt, S&P Index Analyst

July 28 - Second quarter earnings are expected to be down 19%. The Financials, after posting a loss for Q4,'07 and Q1,'08 are expected to be down 93%, but at least they are hoped to remain...

Oct 9- Special charges are starting to come in for the third quarter, and we expect the current third-quarter operating earnings to represent the lowest rate since the 2001 fourth quarter.

Mar. 20- S&P released its fourth quarter findings on buybacks and the top line is that Q4 buybacks were $105 billion, which is the fifth quarter in a row of $100 billion plus expenditures.

Jan. 23 - With about a 25% of the fourth quarter in, the earnings are running about 12% ahead of last year, and just about as expected from their estimates.

April 10 - 2007 was good with a 15.8% total return for the S&P 500. Year to date the index is up 2.3%, with some increased volatility.

Jan. 16 - Earnings for the fourth quarter are starting to come in, and while we do not expect the stellar performance of Q3, the general numbers should be relatively good.

Jan. 29 - The fourth quarter earnings have been marked by mega-billion charges, negative earnings for the entire financial sector, an almost unimaginable decline. Caution is the word here.

Feb. 6 - With about a 25% of the fourth quarter in, the earnings are running about 12% ahead of last year, and just about as expected from their estimates.

Oct. 4 – The stock market started the fourth quarter off with a bang, but the economic data show signs of a sluggish economy.

March 27 - We've mostly recovered from the mini-crash as some have called it and year to date the market is up, with the gain from the August turn around being over 13% - not bad for a seven-month...