>> here now to talk more about those first quarter earnings results and to look forward is christine schwartz, senior manager at s&p capital i.q. thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> the disappointment if there is a disappointment is that revenues have not been growing the way profits have. it's easier to finagle good profits than it is the top line, isn't it christine? >> sure. there is a disparity between what we've seen with earnings results and revenue results. with all of the companies that reported after the bell, we have 67% of s&p 500 companies beating on the bottom line, however, only 41% beating revenues and just like you said it's very easy through accounting measures to throw in a special item and create the illusion of having a higher profit than you actually do, however, you can't really manipulate that top line number. that's what's been particularly concerning this season. it's kind of dayseja vu to the second and third quarter of last year when we saw a similar trend emerging. >> i think what's interesting is we're seeing many more companies forecasting weake

christine schwartz is senior manager at s&p capital iq and stephen whiting joans us and u.s. stine. you are quite upbeat about where you think we might go through. the earnings have been depressed, you argue, because all of the ceos have been saying. >> as of this morning s&p capital iq is expecting a 7% and it's low, and it's actually the highest we've seen in a month. about a month out, analyst ceos are very conservative and what we've seen over the last eight quarters is the final number ends up 4% higher than what the estimate was before alcoa report. which would be respectable. >> is that an automatic connection? >> not always. >> i think sometimes earnings are a secondary trigger for the markets and it's more news based and the rallies have more to do with economic indicators and if we do end up 4% higher, it should give economic indicators. >> a lot of people are very worried and the leadup to it and the cracks there were with the yield on the ten-year coming down and you also have the transports down 3% and that doesn't add up to a market could consistently rally. >> i