U.S. profit growth picture brightening: report: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

U.S. profit growth picture brightening: report: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance: "Reuters U.S. profit growth picture brightening: report Monday August 20, 10:13 am ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. corporate profit growth estimates rose last week, with second-quarter earnings now projected to rise 8.4 percent from the year before compared with an estimate of 7.8 percent last week, according to Reuters Estimates. The quarter's profit growth picture has improved steadily since the beginning of the period back on April 1, when earnings were estimated to rise just 6 percent from the 2006 second quarter, Reuters Estimates said Monday. The projected growth rate combines the actual profit growth reported by the 451 components of the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^SPX - News) that had posted second-quarter results through Friday with the estimated growth for those companies still due to report. The strongest growth rates are being reported in the health care and technology sectors, up 14 percent and 13 percent respectively, Reuters Estimates said. A more forward-looking indicator of the profit scene is also improving. So far in August, of 918 companies offering some form of profit outlook, 26.8 percent were classified as positive versus 22.7 percent seen as negative, Reuters Estimates said. The positive-to-negative ratio, 1.18, is the highest since a 1.20 reading for October 2006 and"