Poor Profits

While the sagging stock market is the result of many factors, corporate profits haven’t helped. In Q4, depending on how measured, corporate profits declined between 3.6% and 15%, and in 2015 they ranged from up 3.3% to down 5.1%. Using the most common definition, corporate profits grew 0.1% in 2014 and 0.6% in 2013. These flat profits strongly discourage corporate investment in plant and equipment hurting, GDP, wages and productivity.