Thursday, May 7, 2015
The Calcbench Earning Indicator tells us that Revenues and Net Income are down so far in the first quarter compared to a year ago (Data through 5/13/15)
The difference is completely explained by the energy companies. The top 5 drops in revenue are represented by Exxon Mobil (-37 Billion USD), Chevron (-18.7 Billion USD), Philipps 66 (-18.3 B USD), Conoco-Philips (-8 B USD), and Marathon Petroleum (-6B USD).
If you remove those firms, the picture looks less bleak as revenue growth is marginally down by about 0.5% year over year. But suffice it to say that the first quarter corporate numbers look anemic at the moment.