South Korea’s brokerage houses continued to slash their first-quarter earnings outlook for listed firms this month as weaker-than-expected growth momentum in the U.S. is feared to undercut their performance, the latest data showed Wednesday.

The operating profit outlook for 156 listed companies was cut by 9.9 percent for the January-March period as of Thursday from an estimate made at the end of November, according to the data compiled by market researcher FnGuide.

The outlook covers listed companies for which more than three brokerage houses have offered earnings forecasts for the three-month period.

Also, the first-quarter earnings outlook for 200 major listed companies were reduced by 5.5 percent from a month earlier as of Tuesday, separate data from Tongyang Securities showed.

“Given unfavorable external conditions, their earnings outlook could be further trimmed by up to 15 percent down the road,” said Kwak Hyun-soo, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp. (Yonhap)