????If you believe that corporate profits largely drive the performance of the stock market, then it's likely that the good times in equities could come to a halt this year. Earnings for the S&P 500 are expected to rise just 6% this year, down from 16% in 2011, according to S&P Capital IQ. And profits have already shown signs of a slowdown, growing just 8% in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010.
????Indeed, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday offered a tempered view of the U.S. economy. The housing market remains a drag, while the job market has been "far from normal," he says. All the while, rising gas prices threaten consumers' buying power.
????The Fed predicts the economy will grow only 2.2% to 2.7% this year, only slightly faster than it grew in the second half of 2011. Admittedly, Bernanke has been outrageously wrong before but it would only be fair for us to question if the basic ingredients that make a strong economy could, in the end, really prop up the stock market on its own.
