Regulators are scrutinizing whether companies are manipulating financial results to meet Wall Street targets, as a profit-squeeze amps up pressure on executives to “make the numbers.”
This earnings season has been marked by falls in both reported profits and expectations of future returns. With more than 99% of S&P 500 companies having reported, fourth-quarter earnings are down 4.65%, according to FactSet. That is the first year-over-year decline since fall 2020, at the height of the pandemic.
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