As major U.S. corporations prepare to close the books on a lackluster year of profit growth, they may need to shore up confidence that 2020 will show significant improvement to keep the stock market’s rally going. Wall Street surged to record highs last week, partly reflecting growing hopes for a resolution to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war with China. Investors are anxious to find out whether that will bolster the case for a pickup in earnings growth after the S&P 500’s .SPX 29% gain in 2019 occurred despite anemic profit growth in the first three quarters. Fourth-quarter S&P 500 earnings are expected to have declined 0.6% year-over-year, which would mark the second straight quarterly decline, or a profit recession, the […]