Described by some economic analysts as "a trough year," 2010 ended on a positive note with the S&P 500 on a fourth-quarter tear and the January 31 Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator signaling that the U.S. economy is slowly emerging from the recession. (Never mind that the National Bureau of Economic Research declared the recession to have ended in June 2009.) On February 11, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a drop in the unemployment rate from 9.4 percent to 9 percent, and the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment in February climbed to 75.1 from 74.2 a month earlier.
All of those are good signs, but perhaps the best news came from consultancy firm Deloitte, which reported on February 3 that 69 percent of fourth-quarter company results exceeded market forecasts. With 187 U.S. companies reporting fourth-quarter results, Deloitte noted net income or profits for all 2010 were up an average of 45 percent over 2009. And of 34 European companies, most in Continental Europe, fourth-quarter profits rose on average 25 percent over 2009. "This [2011] will likely be the year in which corporations begin to spend again," said Deloitte.
