11.   But analysts noted that some of the profit increase came from a lower-than-expected tax rate and improved earnings from financial services.

12.   But analysts and investors said they would prefer the company to focus on improving earnings at its existing businesses.

13.   But that hardly makes nuclear technicians a model for improving the earnings of noncollege graduates in the real-world job market.

14.   Cambridge Shopping Centres Ltd. of Toronto is another company that Hough sees as likely to improve earnings and share prices as early as next year.

15.   Combining the two companies will reduce costs and improve earnings, Storage Dimensions said, in part by reducing the cost of acquiring disk drives for the larger entity.

16.   Compaq and Dell were among the biggest gainers, rising along with other stocks on enthusiasm of robust holiday sales and improving earnings.

17.   European time-sensitive freight and logistics units, on the other hand, improved earnings.

18.   Expectations of improving earnings from Telebras helped fuel that rise.

19.   First Bank had hoped that such a stock buyback would substantially improve its earnings per share and thus raise its share price.

20.   Executives emphasized they were focusing on their core assets and improving those earnings over the next year through expected gains from their acquisitions in the Northeast.