This comes from Zacks:
This week, as earnings season winds down and analysts revise their estimates (mostly lower), the S&P 500 is shaping up (or down) to post negative 8% earnings "growth" in Q1. That marks the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines and the largest drop yet.
Much of this decline is related to the bear market in oil. But even without the Energy sector, Q1 estimates on December 31 were expected to be +1.5%. Now, ex-Energy, they are -3.5%.
And Q2 is already coming in negative on the estimates picture at -2.9%. What I started saying last autumn is that "as long as the forward estimates are in jeopardy, the valuation re-set must go on."
As you might have noticed, we were already skeptical about this 3 day rally that took S&P 100 points higher. Looks like a technical bounce from heavily oversold conditions.