Corporate Profits Rose to 13.5% in Fourth Quarter

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.S. corporate profits rose 13.5% in the fourth quarter, buoyed by steady economic growth, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The Commerce Department said that pre-tax profits of private and public companies increased their adjusted profits at an annual growth rate of 25.9%, the paper reported.

The level was the strongest since the fourth quarter of 1992, the paper said, though many economists believed profit growth probably peaked in the quarter and would slow in months ahead as profit margins are squeezed by high costs, including energy.