Earnings Reports Have Been Upbeat

This will be the second rush week for third-quarter earnings, with about 150 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index scheduled to post results.

Earnings have been robust, with the 203 S&P; 500 index companies that have posted results showing 14.2% growth compared with the third quarter of 2001, according to Thomson First Call.

About 61% of reported results have exceeded analysts’ forecasts, Thomson said, compared with an average of 57% of companies whose earnings have exceeded expectations.

Investors are upbeat about what companies have had to say about the fourth quarter.

The ratio of negative to positive announcements for the fourth quarter is running at 1.7 to 1, better than the 2.2-to-1 ratio when companies were giving guidance for the third quarter.

Among the companies whose results are anticipated this week:

Gillette Co., the consumer products company known for its Mach 3 and Venus razors and blades, and AT&T; Corp., the No. 1 U.S. long-distance phone company, are scheduled to release their earnings Tuesday.

Telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc. is scheduled to report results Wednesday.

Thursday, earnings are expected from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., the company that which runs Westin, Sheraton, St. Regis and the W Hotels, and JDS Uniphase Corp., the world’s top supplier of fiber-optic network components and modules.