Oct. 14--Look for CEOs to announce plenty of cost-cutting moves over the next few weeks as they react to a weakening economy at home and around the globe.

That's the view of stock analysts at the dawn of earnings season and the quarterly ritual of CEOs providing guidance for their company's financial performance.

Given the credit crisis, Wall Street's meltdown and concerns about the direction of the economy, this promises to be a difficult time for earnings forecasts.

Across the economy, earnings for the third quarter are projected to be 7 percent below a year earlier, and analysts are much more pessimistic about the earnings than they were even three or six months ago.

In April, analysts figured the average company in the Standard & Poor's 500 would post profit growth of 17 percent, said John Butters, director of U.S. earnings with Thomson Reuters, in a research note.

If that drop holds, this quarter will be the fifth straight quarter in which S&P 500 companies report that earnings are falling rather than rising -- the longest stretch of declining earnings in six years, he said.

Companies in the financial arena, including banks and MGIC Investment Corp., are expected to report the steepest earnings declines -- about 81 percent from a year ago. They should be followed by consumer discretionary companies (automobiles, retail, hotels, restaurants), expected to be off 10 percent.

Driving that latter number down are all companies associated with the auto industry, where forecasts are bleak enough that investors should prepare for a gloomy 2009, analysts say. Sales in Europe are already falling, and J.D. Power and Associates warned last week of the potential for an "outright collapse" in global auto sales in 2009.

That would affect such Wisconsin companies as Johnson Controls Inc., Modine Manufacturing Co. and Strattec Security Corp., among others.

Johnson Controls will brief analysts today in New York on its outlook for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

Industry observers say the company is better prepared than most parts suppliers to withstand a downturn. But even its building efficiency business, which sells control systems and other energy-efficiency technologies, could be affected, as oil prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks.

In the past four weeks, analysts' outlook for Johnson Controls earnings in fiscal 2009 has dropped 3 percent to $2.46 per share.

Auto-parts supplier Lear Corp. warned about the fourth quarter and 2009 when it posted lower-than-expected results Friday.