They say 4.1% so that after all earnings are in and the number comes in at say 7-8% they can all say look how great this economy is, when in reality all there doing is setting the bar so low that companies have no problem beating the lowered estimates. Remember this while every company reports over the next 6-8 weeks. from cnn.com Earnings are expected to rise 4.1% from the year earlier, according to Thomson Financial estimates. But as in previous times, many companies tend to lower the bar before reports, which tends to help them easily beat expectations.
Briefing.com cites expectations of 8%. In any case, earnigns won;t be the biggest factor. Forecasts will decide where we go from here. Nobody really cares how much a company made last quarter. They want to know how much they expect to earn this quarter.
None of it really matters, just focus on your charts, they will let you know everything thats going on. Estimates from wallstreet, economic data, forget about it.