NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Wall Street analysts are forecasting flat earnings growth for U.S. companies in the first and second quarter, a survey by Reuters Estimates shows.

Earnings for Standard & Poor's 500 companies are now expected to grow by 0.4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, revised downward from a forecast of 0.9 percent a week ago.
Analysts also lowered their earnings growth expectations for the second quarter of 2008 to 0.9 percent from 1.1 percent a week ago.
Reuters Estimates found that for the fourth quarter of 2007, earnings for the S&P 500 fell 20.4 percent, which it said was the worst performance in six years.
It found that the healthcare and technology sectors posted the largest year-over-year earnings gains at 13 percent and 28 percent, respectively.
The weakest earnings performance was in basic materials and financial sectors, which declined by 11 percent and 94 percent, respectively.