Some executives already are looking past the soft patch. A survey of 99 companies completed June 6 showed businesses are more optimistic about capital spending for this year than they've been since records began in 2003, according to a report from ISI Group Inc. in New York. Hiring plans were the highest in five years.

The results are consistent with analysts' forecasts for a 14.5 percent gain from a year ago in the second-quarter earnings of S&P 500 companies, ISI said.

"The corporate sector is in much better shape today than it was in past cycles," Carson said. Given that "liquidity is the lifeblood of all cycles," the U.S. has "the foundation for a strong recovery."

Domestic Surge

Companies in the S&P index had $2.58 trillion in cash and short-term investments at the end of the last quarter, according to Bloomberg data. Operating profits increased a cumulative 44 percent since the recovery began, six times faster than the 7 percent rise in nominal GDP, Carson said, with the surge led by domestic industries, which posted a 52 percent jump in earnings.

Even more compelling is the long-term boost American companies are getting from their overseas earnings, which grew an average 12 percent during the past decade, or about double the rise in the U.S., Carson said.

"Strong profits create the incentive to generate more profits," he said. "That comes through investment."

DuPont said May 11 it plans to increase production of titanium-dioxide pigment by about one-third to satisfy rising global demand. It will add about 350,000 metric tons of annual capacity across five sites in the U.S., Mexico and Taiwan, said the Wilmington, Delaware-based company, the world's largest maker of the paint ingredient.

Trickle Down

Even as companies see their bottom lines improving, the gains are taking time to trickle down to employees. Seven quarters after the recession ended, labor costs are running 2.3 percent below the second quarter of 2009, according to Jonathan Basile, senior economist at Credit Suisse in New York. In the nine other postwar recoveries, labor costs rose by an average 2.7 percent in the same period.