Corporate earnings are near and forward guidance seems a bit on the negative side, and if I have learned anything, corporate profits returning to the mean will just be plain ugly.
I work for a chemical company and for the most part our division is doing well and has been for the last five years. After we revised our methods for passing through directly the costs of increases and decreases of our primary raw materials to customers (all crude oil derivatives) the company realized stable and predicatable earnings and profits. Since we are few layers removed from the retail customer those pass-through costs usually are delayed by a few months - further cushioning the downside risks to customers. So long as we don't see a spike in the oil price from say the current 95-100$/bbl to say 150$/bbl or more I believe we will see the economy hum along happily for awhile yet and corporate earnings will surprise by staying about where they've been for past few years.