Investors will be looking for US companies to start providing evidence that “green shoots” of recovery have begun sprouting on their bottom lines when they start reporting second-quarter results on Wednesday.

Earnings for blue chips in the S&P 500 index will extend a two-year losing streak in the three months to June, with a fall of more than 35 per cent over the same period in 2008, according to analysts’ forecasts collected by Thomson Reuters.