A surge in the US dollar has already wiped more than $20bn from first quarter sales at the largest US companies, a sum larger than revenues generated by Intel, Caterpillar or Goldman Sachs in the first three months of the year, according to an analysis by the Financial Times.

With the US earnings season approaching the halfway stage, that figure is likely to jump further. Apple, the world’s most valuable company, reports results today and warned in January that the currency move could slice more than $2bn from quarterly revenues. So far during the current reporting period, General Motors, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Amazon and Johnson & Johnson have experienced $1bn-plus haircuts on sales as they translated revenues earned abroad back into US dollar terms.

Known as “top-line growth”, revenues reflect how quickly a business is growing. In recent years, large multinational US companies’ sales have benefited from the combination of a weaker dollar and robust expansion across emerging market economies.