Wall Street estimates for this year's earnings growth have been coming down precipitously since January, raising the question about whether there's more of a broad-based slowdown afoot, the director of global macro research at Fidelity Investments said Monday.
"The numbers for the next few quarters are coming down." Fidelity's Jurrien Timmer told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
At the beginning of 2016, earnings were expected to grow about 7 percent for the full year, he recalled. But three weeks ago, that number dropped to 2.5 to 2.8 percent, and as of Friday fell to 1.8 percent growth, he said.
By Friday, 132 companies in the reported earnings, with 77 percent beating estimates. On average, earnings have come in 4.4 percent above forecasts.
"Over the last few weeks, we're seeing the typical pattern where companies tend to guide below where they think they're going to report," Timmer said.
"The numbers coming into the quarter, if you're looking at the progression of earnings estimates, tends to be too low," said Timmer.
More than 170 S&P companies are releasing quarterly results this week, with the bulk of that happening Tuesday through Thursday.
"The Wall Street community is expecting very little earnings growth, even though oil is up and the dollar is down," Timmer said. "Over the last year or so, the dollar and oil really explain most of the progression. It has about an 85 percent correlation."