The earnings helped support the company and add more employees.

"Companies were expecting to have those additional earnings to help pay for the acquisitions," he said.

And even strong earnings from Ford Motor did not help it.

While artificially high earnings may help a company, accurate results serve the market as a whole.

Strong corporate earnings and heavy Japanese investments also helped, he said.

The earnings helped send her two daughters to college and provide start-up capital for the travel agency.

In the cities, if the children found work, their earnings helped support the family but there was no off time for education.

Strong corporate earnings are not helping stocks, either.

Many investors were hoping that better-than-expected earnings from several bellwether companies would help the stock market rebound.

And earnings abroad are helping Stanley, and other companies, increase the dividend paid to shareholders.