Today, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Companies Fret Over Uncertain Outlook,” which discussed various aspects of corporate profitability and executives’ outlook on the business environment going forward.

An excerpt:

Fourth-quarter operating earnings topped diminished expectations, rising 7.3% at the 339 members of the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index that have reported results, while revenue rose 5.9%, according to Thomson Reuters. But the companies warn that the current quarter will be more challenging, and analysts project first-quarter earnings at S&P companies will rise just 1.7%, Thomson Reuters says, or less than half what they were predicting at the beginning of the year.

Sixty-three S&P companies have lowered their forecasts for first-quarter earnings, according to FactSet Research, while 17 have raised them, the largest disparity since the firm began tracking the data in 2006.

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