"An improvement in market sentiment with this combination of top-line sales growth will bode well for stock investors," Chad Morganlander, a Florham Park, New Jersey-based money manager at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which oversees more than $115 billion in client assets, said in a Nov. 2 telephone interview. "Sales growth is a bullish sign for equity markets to grind higher into year-end."

Last Recession

While sales in the third quarter beat analyst estimates by 1.3 percent, the rate was down from 2 percent in the previous three months as more companies posted revenue that trailed forecasts than any time since the last recession. For the fourth quarter, estimates have decreased 0.6 percent to $264.59 per share, while the projection for 2012 is $1,093.83 a share, compared with $1,106.60 a month ago, Bloomberg data show.

3M fell 6.3 percent on Oct. 25, the most since 2008, after the maker of LCD television parts and Scotch-Brite sponges cut its 2011 forecast and posted profit that trailed analysts' estimates for the first time in 10 quarters. Sales at the St. Paul, Minnesota-based company rose 9.6 percent to $7.53 billion, trailing the average analyst estimate of $7.78 billion.

Amazon, the world's largest Internet retailer, reported net sales in the third quarter of $10.88 billion, missing the average analyst estimate of $10.94 billion, even as revenue benefited from surging Kindle orders. Operating results may range from a loss of $200 million to profit of $250 million, the Seattle-based company said. The shares fell 13 percent on Oct. 26, the biggest decline since October 2008.

Economy Versus Sales

The economy usually slows before sales, according to Komal Sri-Kumar, the Los Angeles-based chief global strategist at TCW Group Inc., which oversees about $120 billion. As Europe slips into a recession in the fourth quarter, corporations in the S&P 500 will find their clients becoming increasingly reluctant to make orders for 2012, he said.

"In terms of 2011 compared with 2010, the earnings growth of the S&P 500 was out of whack with the slowdown of the U.S. economy," Sri-Kumar said in a telephone interview on Nov. 3. "That doesn't last too long. After a while profit and sales growth have to come back to consistency with the economy. That's what we're seeing take place in the fourth quarter of 2011 and we'll see happen in the first half of 2012."

S&P 500 revenue projections for the first quarter have dropped 1.7 percent in the past month to $260.07 a share and 1.5 percent for the second quarter to $268.48 a share, Bloomberg data show.

'Mild Recession'

European leaders last week for the first time raised the prospect of the euro area splintering. The European Central Bank unanimously lowered the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent on Nov. 3. It took the step because "what we're observing now is slow growth heading toward a mild recession," ECB President Mario Draghi said.