As Corporate America gears up to report first quarter earnings this week, Deutsche Bank fired off a report to clients that predicts modest results and a modest reaction from the stock market.

The investment bank is looking for 6.9 percent year-over-year revenue growth, the sixth straight quarterly revenue increase. It will be led by revenues in energy, materials and info tech.

With the bulk of the companies having already reported their results, how did the fourth quarter shape up? Well, it all depends upon what you compare them against.

If you look at the comparable period the year before, the fourth quarter looked outstanding. However, it was only slightly better than the prior three-month period.

Perhaps the most encouraging piece of business-related news I have read in a long time was reported by Bloomberg this morning. It also probably explains why the stock market has been surging since the beginning of September.

The wire service reported that 198 companies lifted their earnings estimates above analysts' forecasts in October while 130 companies reduced them. Bloomberg said this is the biggest gap since it began tracking this data in 1999.

If the Federal Reserve Bank of New York requires mortgage originators to repurchase mortgages acquired through the bailouts of companies like American International Group and Bear Stearns, as it said it might, banks could face weaker earnings and reduced lending capacity as a result.

Second-quarter earnings showed that recovery is on its way for banks, with, for example, Morgan Stanley beating analysts' forecasts. But there's still some pressure on the industry.

Paul Krugman today once again bemoans the lack of Keynesianism in what passes for economic policymaking discussions these days, and I share that complaint.

However, Krugman may be missing part of the problem here, which is that those who pooh-pooh the prospect of deflation may actually not much care if it materializes, though they would be mistaken to do so.

There's a political debate heating up about companies' hesitancy to invest the cash they're sitting on.

Essentially, the Democrats--or at least those in favor of further government stimulus measures such as a jobs program or at least extended unemployment benefits--argue that companies are wary of spending because of the lack of aggregate consumer demand.

Rising labor strife in China has potentially significant implications for US companies and financial markets. The irony is that what companies want isn't necessarily the same thing that markets do.

Yves Smith over at Naked Capitalism does a good job of explaining why.

US multinationals will start to feel the effects this quarter of the dollar’s rise against the euro as earnings take a hit. Not only will profits suffer from translation, but companies that set up effective hedging programs in the face of last year’s weak dollar are now also contending with the flip side and could see big losses as a result of hedging contracts that put them on the wrong side of the latest trend.

Although any volatility can be problematic, the weak dollar in 2009 had a generally positive impact on corporate earnings for companies with big revenue bases outside the US – such as consumer goods and food and beverage firms. The strong dollar, in contrast, will have a negative impact on earnings as revenues are affected by the foreign exchange impact and as US goods cost more when sold into markets with a weaker currency.

Submitted by Jonah Bloom, republished from Going Concern, Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs.

Jonathan Ramsden has been Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Abercrombie & Fitch since December 2008 and is a key part of a team trying to guide the retailer's global expansion while managing something of a remake of its domestic operations. Going Concern caught up with him recently to find out how he sees A&F's business and what else is on his mind.

By remaking itself through acquisitions and divestitures, Dow Chemical hasn't made life easy for those inside its finance department. And so, apparently, they've decided to share the pain with investors and analysts following the chemical manufacturing giant.