Profit growth for U.S. companies probably accelerated for a third straight quarter as strengthening consumer demand drove sales for General Motors Co. to Apple Inc. and underpinned a manufacturing recovery.

Fourth-quarter earnings per share for companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 4.9 percent from a year earlier, according to analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg, outpacing gains of 4.8 percent in the third quarter and 3.8 percent in the second. Estimates have trailed actual growth by at least 1.8 percentage points in the past three quarters.

The profit growth was aided by a jump in consumer confidence to the highest year-end reading in six years and by industrial production that surpassed its 2007 peak for the first time in November. While results are still uneven, with online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. outperforming brick-and-mortar chains including Pier 1 Imports Inc., consumers are being bolstered by a five-year low in the unemployment rate and last year's 30 percent surge in the S&P 500.