Growth in corporate profits was widely expected to ease, after earnings jumped 22 percent in 2018 largely because of sharp cuts in corporate tax rates. Those lower rates remain in place and are no longer driving year-over-year growth.

“It wasn’t sustainable,” Mr. Arone said of last year’s profit growth. Wall Street analysts now expect that full-year earnings will be up roughly 4 percent from last year.

Of course, with the global economy slowing, companies might have a harder time clearing the lower earnings hurdles they now face. Economists expect the pace of growth in the United States to slow to 2.4 percent this year, down from nearly 3 percent in 2018.

America’s peppy growth rate last year also was fueled by the tax cuts, as well as a boost in federal spending. While the economy remains healthy, the benefits of both are fading.

At the same time, the global economy is also losing steam, thanks in part to the continuing trade fight between the United States and China. On April 9, the International Monetary Fund cut its growth forecast for the third time since October, citing the tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

But investors have become more sanguine about the trade fight, with many seeing the lack of fresh tit-for-tat tariffs as an indication that the two countries will eventually come to some sort of an agreement.

“It does feel that both the U.S. and China want to post a win here,” said Kate Moore, chief equity strategist for BlackRock.