Corporate Earnings Begin to Show Signs of Exhaustion Along With Economy

from WSJ:

Geysers are spectacular—while they last.
The same might be said of highflying U.S. corporate earnings. They dazzled investors the past year, but now it looks as if their growth may be waning. Although second-quarter profit came in strong, with S&P 500-stock index companies posting 38% year-on-year earnings growth, estimates for 2011 results continue to fall.
Analysts now expect 14.7% earnings growth for S&P 500 companies next year, according to Thomson Reuters.