U.S. earnings still lousy, but showing signs of life

As earnings season begins to enter the homestretch, what has shaped up to be a dismal quarter for quarterly profits may have reached a bottom. With 311 of the S&P 500 companies having posted results through Friday, 74.6 percent have topped earnings expectations, well above the 63 percent average since 1994 and 68.5 percent for the past four quarters, according to data from Thomson Reuters Proprietary Research. Perhaps more importantly, Thomas Lee, managing partner at Fundstrat Global Advisor