One of the services provided by Thomson Reuters (TRI) is they aggregate financial data from analysts. TRI recently updated/aggregated all the analyst data as it relates to earnings and revenues for the S&P 500 Index companies for the third quarter. TRI notes:
...companies in the S&P 500 are likely to post the slowest annual revenue growth rate [for Q3] in the last decade (barring the 2008/2009 financial crisis) and the trend seems to be getting worse, with more disappointments in store.
In order for companies to continue achieving earnings growth, they have to be focused on the cost side of their business. Unfortunately, companies can only cut costs for so long before this avenue to increase earnings comes to an end.
Indeed, this reality may be setting in for Q3 2012 earnings. As the below chart details, Q3 earnings are expected to decline by 2.0%. It is likely, Q4 earnings are being revised lower as well. The second chart shows the trend in fourth quarter earnings growth.
TRI discusses the potential consequences of this slowdown in the below video.