With the quarterly reporting period under way, it's been suggested that flat is the new up; results of the Jan. 12 ASI E-News survey explore this question.

Here we present the results of the Jan. 12 ASI E-News survey.

With the quarterly reporting period underway, it's been suggested that flat is the new up when it comes to quarterly results. What do you think?

Yes: 47.059%
No: 52.941%

Comments:

“Flat is still flat!”

“I don't expect to get back to 2008 sales, but flat this quarter would not be acceptable.”

“Flat is flat!! Up is up!! Any company that believes otherwise is doomed to fail.”

“I believe smaller companies will show higher quarterly earnings and help drag averages up. It seems that smaller companies started `leaning’ their operations sooner than BIG companies. The gross earnings may be smaller, but the net will surely be higher.”

“We need to do better than stay flat.”