Huge oil profits skew earnings picture

The boom in U.S. corporate profits may not be as amazing as it seems.

While corporate earnings are in the midst of a record-breaking streak of double-digit growth, the historic profits reported by the energy industry thanks to the soaring price of oil are a big reason why.

Last year, for instance, earnings reported by companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 continued their double-digit streak of growth gaining 13.2%, S&P says. ExxonMobil alone posted the largest annual profit in U.S. corporate history of $36.1 billion.

But take out the contribution from energy companies, and that growth shrivels by a third to a less-impressive single-digit number of 8.9%.

USA Today