The Spring 2012 Snapshot of Expected S&P 500 Earnings

Now that we're halfway through the second quarter of 2012, how has the expected future changed for the U.S. stock market earnings changed from the beginning of the year?

Our chart below reveals the answer!

In this chart, we see that compared to our snapshot from 19 January 2012, investor expectations for earnings in 2012 have dimmed, especially for the first three quarters of the year.

Meanwhile, they appear to expect that 2013 will provide a much better environment for the S&P 500's earnings per share.

As for why they expect that the future will play out this way is something that we'll leave up to your imagination!