The outlook for corporate earnings isn't so hot right now.

Analysts estimate companies in the S&P 500 suffered a profit decline of 1.2 percent in the first quarter, according to FactSet Research, CNNMoney reports. That would represent the first dip in earnings since the third quarter of 2012, when they slid 1 percent.

Predictions are weakest for energy and financial services companies and strongest for telecommunications concerns and utilities, according to CNNMoney.

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Most of the 111 companies in the S&P 500 that offered earnings guidance for the first quarter gave a negative prognosis, according to FactSet.

The first-quarter weakness may stem from the wicked winter weather that blanketed much of the country. Some companies also have suffered from weak currencies in emerging markets, which crimp the companies' exports to these markets and make the revenue they earn there worth less in dollars.

On the plus side, analysts predict that revenue for companies in the S&P 500 grew 2.3 percent in the first quarter, according to FactSet, CNNMoney notes.

Major companies begin reporting their earnings this week.

Sluggish profit reports could hurt stocks, of course. "There is the potential for a possibly significant stock pullback due to spring weakness" in earnings and economic data, Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank, tells The Wall Street Journal.

To be sure, "If [earnings] expectations are low enough — and they have come down dramatically — we could see positive surprises," he argues.

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