Traders works on the floor of the New York Stock ExchangeBy Ashley Lau NEW YORK (Reuters) – With earnings season underway, Wall Street is temporarily putting the U.S. Federal Reserve and macroeconomic policy on the back burner in favor of a focus on individual company results and forecasts for a pulse on the economy's health. A slew of big banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp, is due to report first-quarter earnings next week, providing an expected bright spot in an otherwise gloomy quarter. Profits of companies on the S&P 500 are projected to have declined by 2.9 percent in the first three months from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. Investors will also be watching other firms, such as Netflix Inc, General Electric Co and Schlumberger NV, to see if corporate America more broadly outperforms the negative forecasts analysts have set for it.



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