Despite those leaps in sales and profit, the S. & P. 500 remains below the highs it hit in late January. Earnings reports look backward, and what really matters to investors is what lies ahead. These days that means companies have to consider a growing trade conflict and rising interest rates, wages, commodity prices and other costs that are clouding the economic outlook.

Just which of these worries is front of mind is something that investors will try to divine from executives’ assessments of earnings. Here are some key themes that could emerge.

The Trade War

So far the Trump administration’s trade war hasn’t sunk the stock market, as many had predicted it would. Sure, there are pockets of trouble. Shares of the construction equipment company Caterpillar have struggled in part because the firm is considered doubly vulnerable to trade tensions; more than 50 percent of Caterpillar’s sales last year came from outside North America. The company is also a large consumer of steel, which has risen in price thanks, in part, to Trump administration tariffs on imports.