US Markets

Q1 will be a 'kitchen sink' quarter: Stephen Wood

Earnings traction picks up in Q3 & Q4: Pro
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Earnings traction picks up in Q3 & Q4: Pro

Companies will keep posting weak quarterly profits as earnings season continues, Stephen Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments, said Tuesday.

"I think the trend [for earnings] is downward," Wood told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "Between weather [and] the dollar, I think it's going to be a kitchen sink quarter, and companies will use that cover."

Wood made his remarks as several companies reported earnings per share that beat analysts' forecasts, but fell short on revenue. Some of those include DuPont, United Technologies, Harley-Davidson and Verizon.

They're not alone. Of the 59 S&P 500 companies that had reported by last week, 75 percent had topped profit expectations, above the 70 percent average for the last four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters. However, only 45 percent of them beat revenue estimates, compared with 58 percent in the last four quarters.

Wood added, however, that corporate earnings will find traction in the third and fourth quarters of this year.

Read More This is how ugly Q1 earnings could be: Analyst

John Manley, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management, said in the same interview that he agreed with Wood's assessment, adding that corporate profits will bottom out in the second quarter. "I think the Street gets very funny when it discounts earnings. If we get a sense of [how bad] this is in the next few weeks … then the market starts up."

In early trading Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average was down modestly, while the S&P 500 was up slightly.

—CNBC's Tom DiChristopher contributed to this report.