March 5 (Reuters) - Estimates for European blue-chip companies' fourth-quarter earnings have gotten slightly worse, leaving them on track for their worst earnings season in the past two years, the latest LSEG I/B/E/S data showed on Thursday.
Year-on-year earnings of major European companies were expected to have declined 0.4% in the final quarter of 2025, based on results from 229 STOXX 600 companies and market estimates for those that are yet to report, the data showed. That was worse than the 0.1% decline expected last week.
* Estimates for revenues have sharply deteriorated, withthe data now pointing to a 4.2% year-on-year decline compared tolast week's 2% fall * Still, European corporates have proved more resilient thanpreviously expected, as forecasts at the end of January wereanticipating 4% year-on-year declines. * About 56% of the 229 STOXX 600 companies that havereported earnings have exceeded market estimates. * Projections for STOXX 600 company results sharplydeteriorated after months of trade upheaval since U.S. PresidentDonald Trump took office. * Q4 earnings of European blue-chips were forecast to growas much as 11.1% in February 2025, before Trump announced plansfor global tariffs. * European majors have considerably lagged U.S.counterparts, according to a separate LSEG report published onFriday. * U.S. blue-chips' earnings growth in the fourth quarter isestimated at above 14%, based on results from 479 of the S&P 500companies and estimates for the rest. * "We continue to expect stronger growth in the U.S. than inEurope over H1, but see European earnings catching up in thesecond half of the year," Deutsche Bank analysts said in a noteon Tuesday.
(Reporting by Javi West Larrañaga; Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak and Matt Scuffham)
