Aussie Corporate Profits to Rise

After a couple of years of falling earnings, corporate Australia looks set to finally deliver some growth in the February results season, AAP reported. As usual, it is a slow start with just a few top-200 companies trotting out numbers this week, but a steady churn of rising forecasts has recalibrated earnings growth expectations up 16% for 2016-17. While that optimism has supported the local market since late last year, the week is likely to start on a downbeat note as weaker than expected US economic growth and some lackluster quarterly earnings on Wall Street pushed ASX 200 futures down a tad over the weekend.