The biggest companies in the United States are about to report an overall negative earnings quarter for the first time since the Great Recession of 2009. In the wrenching wake of the pandemic, boards had better conserve cash against a sharp recession and corporate losses, financial experts say. That puts dividends in the cross hairs.

“It was a good run,” wrote Howard Silverblatt in an April 9 press release. Silverblatt is a senior analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Dividends at S&P 500 companies blasted to a record-high $127 billion payment in the first quarter, a year-over-year jump of 8%, he explains in an interview with Agenda, as shareholders reaped the benefits of a 10-year bull market.

Then on March 16, due to the coronavirus outbreak, San Francisco mayor London Breed issued the first shelter-in-place order in the country. Since then, the country has increasingly shut down and 17 S&P 500 companies have suspended quarterly dividends, according to MyLogIQ, a provider of public company intelligence.