US companies are more uncertain about the future than at any point since the financial crisis, with just one in five of the biggest corporations making any predictions as they published quarterly results.

“We’re seeing a marked reluctance from companies to be concrete in their forecasts,” said Christine Short at data provider Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ. “When companies have talked about prospects for 2012, they have tended to make generic comments, which could apply to any company in any sector.”

Some 410 companies in the S&P 500 index have reported fourth-quarter results so far and just 86 of them offered an earnings per share forecast for the first quarter of 2012. That is on track to be the lowest number since the third quarter of 2009, when companies were still weighing up the impact of the financial crisis.