According to preliminary figures released Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s Index Services, third quarter 2008 operating earnings for the S&P 500 declined 21.6% over the third quarter of 2007 marking the fifth consecutive quarter of negative earnings growth for the world’s most followed stock market index.

With 94% of the data in, third quarter operating earnings for the S&P 500 are preliminarily set at $16.36 per share compared to $20.87 for the third quarter of 2007. For the fifth consecutive quarter, S&P 500 As Reported earnings also posted a decline, falling 35.7% to $9.74 per share from the $15.15 per share posted during the third quarter of 2007.

“The Energy sector played the role of hero during the third quarter, contributing 40.4% of the S&P 500’s operating earnings - up from 16.2% a year ago. Without Energy, the third quarter operating earnings for the S&P 500 would have hit an all-time low,”says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at Standard & Poor’s.“Conversely, Financials have now posted their fourth consecutive quarter of negative earnings after accounting for 18.5% of operating earnings this time last year.”

In terms of aggregate dollars, S&P 500 operating earnings for the third quarter were set at $142.8 billion (versus $184.1 billion for Q3 2007), and As Reported earnings were set at $85.0 billion (versus 133.7 billion in Q3 2007).

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