As earnings season shifts into high gear next week in what is expected to be the weakest US quarterly results reporting period since 2009, the hope among some is that this is as bad as it's going to get. The US earnings recession that began in the third quarter of 2015 is expected to continue until the second quarter, with profits slated to fall 2.2 percent - not as bad as the nearly 8 percent drop expected in the first quarter.