By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- With the U.S. stock market's recent rise coming on the heels of better-than-expected earnings results, investors are looking to the third quarter with raised expectations that could be difficult to meet. "We're starting to see guidance get a bit better, and that reflects both the fact that companies are beating estimates in the second quarter and the economy appears to be groping for a bottom here, which allows estimates to drift up," said Charles Blood Jr., a financial adviser at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. But Blood cautions that year-over-year comparisons for the coming quarter make it a difficult one, given "last year's third quarter, for all except financials, was good for most everything else." The bar should be far lower in the final quarter of 2009, when it would be reasonable to start looking for a rise in corporate profits. "We think the fourth quarter will be up year-on-year because last year's fourth quarter was such a disaster," said Blood. Wednesday's trade had the major stock indexes declining about 1% on the heels of disappointing economic data, with energy and industrial shares bleeding the most. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU 9,244, -76.33, -0.82%) fell more than 100 points, and was recently down 85.02 points to 9,236.68. The S&P 500 Index (SPX 998.11, -7.54, -0.75%) shed 8.04 points to 997.61, while the Nasdaq Composite (COMP 1,988, -23.12, -1.15%) dropped 21.08 points to 1,990.23.

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