Anna Rathbun

This week’s kickoff to the corporate earnings season offers the next trial for the market as investors consider whether U.S. stocks can hold on to recent gains in the face of deteriorating profits.Analysts expect companies in the S&P 500 to report a second consecutive decline in quarterly earnings. First-quarter profits are projected to drop 6.8% from the same period a year earlier, according to FactSet. That would mark the steepest earnings decline since the second quarter of 2020, when the onset of the Covid-19…

Investors expect concerns about hot inflation and strapped consumers to dominate the corporate-earnings season that kicks off this week, creating winners and losers in the battered stock market.Stocks have come under pressure this year with inflation hovering at a four-decade high and the Federal Reserve in the midst of an aggressive campaign to raise interest rates to rein it in. The S&P 500 has fallen 18% in 2022, even after rallying 3% to start July. Tightening monetary policy has slashed…