European debt crisis expected to hurt profits
10/5/2011NEW YORK -- Third-quarter earnings season may mean little to investors amid speculation that Europe’s debt crisis will harm the global economy, according to Steven Wieting, managing director of economic and market analysis at Citigroup Inc.
Profits of firms in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will miss analyst estimates for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2008, he said in a note this week. European developments may determine the impact of earnings reports on the market during this time of record correlation among U.S. stocks, he said.